What do political sciences study? Social Political Sciences

Studies in the interdisciplinary field, which are aimed at using techniques and methods in understanding the conduct of state strategy, are carried out by political science. Thus, personnel are trained to solve various problems of the vital activity of the state. Political sciences are strictly applied to the form, in contrast to the sciences of "pure." The range of problems in this sphere is extremely wide, therefore absolutely any discipline, not only social science, but also physical, biological, mathematical, sociological, can adhere to the political.

The most closely connected with the approach used by political science are political science, sociology, management, law, municipal and state administration, history. The methods of cognition are also often borrowed from areas of border disciplines such as operations research, system analysis, cybernetics, general systems theory, game theory , and so on. All this becomes a subject of study, if it helps to find solutions to issues of state importance, which are engaged in political science.

Goals and means

Research is directed in such a way as to clarify goals, evaluate alternatives, recognize trends and analyze the situation, and then work out a specific policy for solving state problems. There is no need to talk about fundamental values, we need a proposition of the fact that is subject to investigation, which is what political science does. The development of political science occurs more quickly if its representatives participate independently in the choice of goals, discuss the suitability or unfitness of the means, lay out possible options and foresee the consequences of alternative options.

Most modern and historical political systems have necessarily assigned and assigned one of the most important places "at the helm" to highbrow experts who provide their knowledge and skills to the main developers of government policy. But a truly scientific, coordinated multidisciplinary approach to the effectiveness of the state strategy has developed not so long ago. Formation of political science began not earlier than 1951, when this term was invented by the American psychologist, and later by the political scientist Harold Lasswell. It is from that time that individual contributions have already been made by scientific experts-political scientists to the whole structure of the state policy support. And interdisciplinary cooperation is really effective.

Providing science policy

What do political sciences study? They explore everything, depending on the situation. This is very clearly seen in the participation in the development of a strategy such discipline as system analysis, which develops first planning, then programming, then financing each specific government program. The boundaries between disciplines are eroding more and more, and politicians seriously expect that soon they will completely disappear. This course of events is characterized by the fact that a variety of scientific knowledge is integrally applied to the political process. Perhaps they are right, and what they study in political science will make them a supradiscipline.

Here it is necessary to take into account that this is by no means political science itself (that is, a big political science) -it is rather what is rendered in the headline-scientific provision of the state strategy. The term already in use is applied political science, an original institution of political science, dealing with the regularities of the emergence of various phenomena in the work of a huge state machine. This is the relationship and processes related to the life of the country. Applied political science is also engaged in the search for ways, forms of functioning, development and management methods in political processes, it cares about both political consciousness and culture.

Probably, there is no area where political science would not have applied itself. The development of political science can not be stopped, since it covers practically all human activity. Political science as pure science studies the real state of the political life of states, but applied science has the purpose of researching and accumulating knowledge about political processes, as well as transferring them to the widest possible range of people.

Objects and objects

It is necessary to distinguish between objective reality that does not depend on the cognizing subject, and the object of research itself, that is, certain properties, qualities, facets of the object under study. The subject is always chosen in connection with the tasks and objectives of a particular study, and the object itself is a given that does not depend on anything. The object can be investigated by arbitrarily numerous sciences.

The social class, for example, is studied by psychology, and by sociology, and by political science, and by entology, and by a whole series of various sciences. However, each of them in this object has its own methods and its subject of investigation. Philosophers, apologists of science speculative and contemplative, investigates in the social class the enduring problems of human existence, historians will help to compile a chronology of the development events of a given social class, economists will trace the aspects of life of this part of society peculiar to their science. So modern political science gets its real value in the life of the state.

But political scientists are studying in the same facility everything that is associated with the word "politics" in people's lives. This is a political structure, institutions, relationships, personal qualities, behavior and so on (you can continue for a long time). All this means that the object of research for political scientists is the political sphere of society, since the researcher can not change it in any way. The subjects of political studies can not only be different, but from the degree of study and propaganda they may well be changed for the better (although there are also reverse examples when the result was too dependent on the human factor and the goal was set incorrectly for other political systems, but this is already international Political science, about it a little later).

Method and direction

Applied political science is a multifunctional science that uses a variety of directions and methods in studies according to the materials of the disciplines involved. Studying certain categories of political science, mankind acquires power over the course of historical development of society, replenishes the arsenal with effective methods of influence, acquiring specific methods of research. Of the most basic areas of research - political institutions, and this state and power, law, various parties, social movements, that is, all sorts of formalized or not political institutions. What should be understood by this term? This is one or another area of politics with a set of established norms and rules, principles and traditions, as well as relations that can somehow be regulated.

The methodology of political science will help to consider, for example, the institution of the presidency with its rules of procedure for election, outside the competence, methods of removal from office and so on. No less important is the study of political phenomena and processes, where the identified objective laws are studied, the laws of the development of the entire system of society are analyzed, political technologies are developed for their practical application in this field. The third direction explores the political consciousness, psychology and ideology, the culture of behavior, motivations, modes of communication and methods of managing all these phenomena.

History of political science

For the first time, theoretically generalize knowledge about politics was tried in antiquity. The basis for these studies served in the majority of speculative philosophical and ethical ideas. Philosophers of this direction Aristotle and Plato were mainly interested not in some real state, but in the ideal, as it should be in their ideas. Further, in the Middle Ages, Western European concepts had a religious dominant, and therefore political theories had corresponding interpretations, since any thought, including political one, could develop only on the territories of the theological paradigm. The directions of political science have not yet developed, and the prerequisites for this will appear very soon.

Political views were interpreted as one of the many spheres of theology, where the highest authority is God. The civil concept appeared in political thought only in the seventeenth century, which gave rise to the emergence and development of truly independent methods of researching current political processes. The works of Montesquieu, Locke, and Burke became the basis of the institutional method so widely used in modern applied political science, although political science itself has not yet developed. This concept took shape only in the twentieth century. Nevertheless, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was the study of political institutions that engaged the best minds in their work. And what this method represents, it is necessary to consider in more detail.

Institutional method

By this method, as already mentioned above, it is possible to investigate various political institutions: states, organizations, parties, movements, electoral systems and many other regulators of processes in the activities of society. The stages of political science in its consistent development can be continued by studies of the external activities of states and the international policy process. Institutionalization is the ordering, standardization and formalization of social relations in the sphere of human activity. Thus, using such a method, it is assumed that most of the society recognizes the legitimacy of such a social institution and that legalizing the relations and establishing rules that are uniform for the whole society and regulating the entire social life will be able to ensure the planned behavior of all subjects in social interaction.

This method also moves the process of institutionalization. Applied political science by this method checks political institutions on their legal validity, public legitimacy and mutual compatibility. Here it is necessary to remember that the concept of an institutional agreement is of key importance for the development of society. Any violation of the generally accepted institutional norms, as well as the transition to new rules of the game, without convincing grounds, lead to social conflicts of varying degrees of severity. When applying the institutional method of research, the political sphere becomes visible as an integral system of social institutions that have their own structures and rules for their activities.

Sociological, anthropological and psychological methods

Identify the social conditioning of phenomena called the sociological method of investigation. It allows us to better discover the nature of power, to define its strategy as the interaction of huge social communities. Applied political science combines for this purpose various social political sciences, which are engaged in the collection and analysis of real facts, that is, specific sociological research. Thus, the foundation is laid for the work of political technologists, focused on the application of results in the practice of building plans for the further development of the political process under study.

An anthropological method analyzes the political phenomenon, if only the collectivist essence of the individual is considered. According to Aristotle, a person can not live alone, apart, because he is a political being. However, evolutionary development shows how long it takes to improve the social organization in order to reach the stage when it becomes possible to move on to the political organization of the society where a person always tries to isolate himself.

Motivation and other behavioral mechanisms are considered by a researcher who uses the psychological method of research. As a scientific direction, this method arose in the nineteenth century, but it was based on the ideas of Confucius, Seneca, Aristotle, and scientists of the New Age - Rousseau, Hobbes, Machiavelli - supported the ancient thinkers. Here the most important link is the psychoanalysis developed by Freud, where the processes in the unconscious are investigated, which can have a significant impact on the behavior of the individual, including the political one.

Comparative method

Comparative, or comparative, method has come in our days from ancient times. Aristotle and Plato also compared various political regimes and determined the correctness and irregularity of forms of statehood, and then constructed, in their opinion, the ideal ways to arrange the world order. Now the comparative method is widely used in applied political science, even a separate branch has grown - comparative political science - and has become an independent direction in the overall structure of political science.

The essence of this method is the comparison of different and similar phenomena - regimes, movements, parties, political systems or decisions made by them, methods of development, and so on. So it is possible to easily identify the special and common in any objects under study, as well as to objectively assess the realities and identify patterns, and therefore - to find the most optimal solutions to problems. Analyzing, for example, two hundred different states and as many of their characteristic features as possible, all similar and different features are chosen by comparison, typologized similar phenomena, possible alternatives are identified. And you can use the experience of other states, developing your own. Comparison is the best means of acquiring knowledge.

Behaviorism in Political Science

The behavioral method is based on purely empirical observations. The social behavior of the individual and individual groups is investigated. In this case, the study of individual characteristics is used. That is, the social political sciences in these studies do not participate. In this way, electoral behavior of voters was examined and studied, and pre-election technologies were also developed with its help. In spite of the fact that behaviorism has made a significant contribution to the development of empirical research methods, and also to the development of applied political science, the area of application of this method is rather limited.

The main shortcoming of behaviorism is that they are given priority to researching individual, torn from the general structure and social environment, atomized groups or individuals. This method does not take into account either historical traditions or moral principles. Everything in it is only naked rationality. Not that this method was bad. It is not universal. America is suitable. And Russia, for example, does not. If society lacks the natural roots from which its history grew, in it every individual is like an atom, he knows only one external constraint, because he senses the pressure of other atoms. The individual has no internal limitations, he is not burdened with traditions or moral values. It's a free player, and he has one goal - to equip the others.

Briefly about many things

System analysis, widely used in applied political science, was developed by the works of Plato and Aristotle, continued by Marx and Spencer and finally issued by Easton and Almond. This is an alternative to behaviorism, since it views the entire political sphere as an integral self-regulating system that is in the external environment and actively interacts with it. Using a theory common to all systems, system analysis helps to streamline the notions of the political sphere, systematize the diversity of events, build an action model. Then the object under investigation appears as a single organism, whose properties are not in any way the sum of the properties of its individual elements.

The method of synergetics is relatively new and comes from the natural sciences. Its essence lies in the fact that structures that lose order can, in chemical and physical processes, self-organize themselves. This is a rather complex and weighty part of applied political science, which allows us to take a fresh look at not only the causes and forms of the development of matter, but also gain a new understanding of historical processes in social, economic, political and many other spheres of human life.

Sociology in cooperation with political science gave birth to the so-called theory of social action. Previously, it viewed society as a unity, but industrialization, and subsequently post-industrialization, created a situation where individual social movements make their own history, creating problematic fields and arranging social conflicts. If earlier one could appeal to justice in the temple or in the palace, in modern conditions this will not help. Moreover, the sacred concepts have practically disappeared. In their place, fundamental conflicts arise instead of a world of higher justice. The subjects of such political conflicts are now not parties, not classes, but social movements.

Theoretical political science develops general methods for research of the public political sphere. However, all theories somehow always aim at practical problems and are capable of solving them in most cases. Applied political science studies each specific political situation, receives the necessary information, develops political forecasts, gives practical advice and recommendations, solves emerging social and political problems. For this, the above mentioned methods of political research have been developed and reused. Applied political science does not just describe political systems, phenomena and relations, it tries to identify patterns, trends, analyzes the development of social relations and the functioning of political institutions. In addition, in its vigilant attention is the study of the essential aspects of the object, the motivations for political activity and the principles on which this activity is built.