Is political science A Science?
Political science, in its bid to include the word Science, has offered a debatable proposition and a very uncertain academic credential as well about the nature of the discipline. In fact, there is different of option over the nature of the discipline.
The question as to whether politics can be treated as science rest on the meaning of the word Science. But What is science? Shall we call only the uniformity of reasoning a science? Or shall specific relation between cause and effect a science? Or we call disciplines like physics and chemistry science because they are definite, experimented and objective? Or, again, should we regard as science any discipline in which we can apply the scientific method of investigation and observation, and the study of which enriches our knowledge ? In our opinion, if the sum total of all the experiences, observations and phenomenon enrich our knowledge about a discipline, that discipline can rightly be described as a Science. From this view point politics can be treated as science.
But it should be remembered that Political Science is not a science in the sense in which physics and chemistry are sciences. We can place political science in the category of the science of meteorology.
Evolution of political science
How it all Began? Though as a separate academic discipline Political Science is a new one, Politics is, nevertheless asa old as Hellenic Civilization. With the advent and development of civilization, man sought explanation of the phenomenon of the origin, nature and scope of the authority through which the relations of the members of the community to one another were determined. In the process of development, the history of political thought and theories began to emerge at a point at which some sort of the idea of the state, as distinct from the family and the clan, because a deterministic factor in the study of poltics and political theories in ancient Greece and Rome more than twenty centuries in the past, marked the beginning of the new era.
Thus poltics and political science thinking are sufficient old and widespread; but the development of political science as an independent discipline, curiosity, is a recent phenomenon. Even the study of political science as an independent discipline in the intellectually advanced countries of the West is more than a hundred years old. Thus, the emergence of political science as a separate academic discipline is of recent origin. Owing to the fact that Political Science has a formidable influence on public life and its appeal being very widespread, this discipline, rather young among the social science though, has won for itself the recognition in the academic world as an important field of study.
Utility of The Study of Political Science
It will be clear from the following discussion that the study of political science is of great help in our civil and national life.
(i) Political science teaches us all aspects of civil life and thereby, develops and enriches our civic sense and makes us good citizens. According to Voltaire, it is good citizens who bring about good government.
(ii) Man is a social animal, for, he is born in society and nurtured and socialised by it. So a man cannot remain indifferent to social development, social evolution, social conditions and finally. To the society in which he grows. Political science as a branch of social science, deals with all these aspects.
(iii) Garner says that Political science beings and ends with the state. A political man cannot show lack of interest about how the state came into being, how it was organised and what were its functions and goals all these are within the scope of political science. In fact, political science concerns itself with the life of men in relation to organised states.
(iv) Political science investigates the phenomena relating to government and makes comparison between different governments, what is known as compartive governments.
(v) Political science has been enriched by the political thought and theories of a galaxy of scholars and schools since the days of Plato and Aristotle. In the process the teachings of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Hegel, Bentham, J.S Mill, Karl Marx and others elevate the discipline.
(vi) in our present day world no nation can dare to live in isolation. So the utility of the Study of international relations and organisations as a branch of the discipline of political science can hardly be denied.
(vii) Behaviouralism ia s new approach in the arena of political science which imparts this empirical behavioural knowledge to thoes who study this discipline.
(viii) The creative philosophy of Karl Marx, Engels and Lenin, popularly known as Marxism-Leniniasm, provides a scientific ideological instrument for the understanding of the revolutionary transformation of society.
(ix) The budding citizens in particular, and the people in general, must get themselves acquainted with these basic ideas and information provided by Political Science. This is essential before accepting the challenge of duty towards the country and the nation as a citizen, as a voter and as a leader. Any apathy towards the study of political science may spell disaster.
It is, borne in mind that political science cannot be a value-free discipline as contemplated by the Behaviouralists. The goal of political science is the material, cultural and spiritual fulfillment of humanity at large and it is the human factor and the human face on which the discipline of political science is built on.
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