As we look at what political science is
let's look first at your textbook's definition.
Your textbook defines
political science as the systematic
study of the ways in which ideas
individuals and institutions shape
political outcomes. Political theory
focuses on writings of political
philosophers the study of human nature
and human behavior moral purposes and
forms of political participation the
field of comparative politics focuses on
evaluating comparing and contrasting
governmental systems on a global scale
systems of governmental human rights
issues levels of democratic
participation systems of selecting
leaders and while making bodies are all
part of this particular part of the
discipline International Relations
studies the interrelationships between
nations including diplomacy aggression
and response to aggression root causes
of war and peace the use of militaries
state and non-state actors and national
and international security issues the
field most of us are familiar with is
the study of American government and
politics in this study students of
American government and politics seek an
understanding of politics as practiced
in the United States in addition to
giving attention to the American
presidency the United States Congress
and the courts this field also studies
topics such as the political role of
mass media politics of race and
ethnicity constitutional law policy
formation state politics and American
political thought
the study of political methodology is
based mostly on statistics this field is
concerned with the philosophical basis
of political science social science
empirical research design and analysis
and practical field research experience
it has a heavy statistical orientation
and it gives attention to activities
like polling predicting political
outcomes studying factors that motivate
and dissuade voters from selecting a
candidate factors that lead to an
inhibit voter participation and other
specialized scientific quantitative
research projects the field of Public
Administration specializes in preparing
individuals for roles in public
leadership and management it studies the
nuts and bolts of organizing and leading
public agencies at a local state and
national level and lastly the newcomer
on the block is national security
studies this is a relatively new field
of study compared to the others in
political science
it focuses on preparing the military and
civilian professionals and agencies with
research-based techniques for dealing
with domestic and international
terrorism and security threats
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