The Nature of Political Science

Most modern political science is undertaken according to the following conceptual models of analysis: Government and Politics, International Relations, Comparative Politics, and Political Theory or Philosophy. Through political science, we evaluate socio-cultural norms relative to historical foundations and arrive at a means of understanding a given nation’s political infrastructure.

Key to understanding “political shifts” is an understanding of the socio-cultural factors that often underlie them, in addition to understanding the four aforementioned models are not exclusive of each other. As a kind of observational science, as opposed to an experimental one, political science provides the framework through which we come to understand the governance, political factors, and political judiciary that motivate a given culture’s conduct. Initially, political conduct, as opposed to frameworks of governance, was prioritized as a form of study. As political science evolved as a discipline, there has been a shift toward the incorporation of formal modeling techniques of the kind used in certain financial and economic disciplines, focusing on three main components: the ethical, the empirical and the prudential.

Through plugging various global actors into these theoretical models, political liberalists and scientists seek to understand the manner in which certain decisions are made and the ways in which these decisions impact the subsequent decisions of other political actors. Through these modes of analysis, a greater understanding of national and societal functioning is achieved.