POS 101 (Introduction to Political Science)

Lecture Notes: NOT for SALE!!!

Preamble
Political Science as an academic discipline within the social sciences is concerned with the
systematic study and analysis of politics. Political Science attempts to understand the political
behaviour of an individuals, groups, and societies.

Political scientists focus on the factors and conditions that affects political actors, political events
and political institutions. Drawing having from the aforementioned, the study politics is the study
of the state power, authority, influence, governance, development and politics. Our engagement
and discussion is apt and fundamentally instructive.

Political scientist do the following jobs or perform the following functions:

1: Discover the principles that should be adhered to in public affairs
2: study the operations of governments in order to demonstrate what is good
3: criticize what is bad or inefficient, and finally
4: Suggest ways of improvements

Aristotle made an indelible contributions to the growth and development of Political Science. He
studied 158 constitutions and systems of government, laid the foundations of an important
branch of Political Science {Comparative Government and Politics}. Other areas are Political
Economy, Public Policy Analysis {Administration}, Political Theory/Methodology and finally,
Foreign Policy

Aristotle enlarged the conception of Political Science, in his view, Political Scientist needs to
know not only what is the best form of government normatively, but additionally, he ought to
know what is best relative to circumstance and what will succeed in any given conditions.

Conceptualizing Politics
Aristotle: The essence of human existence is politics and where two or more people interacting
with each another are invariably involved in a political relationship. Few people prefer an
isolated life to one that includes social companionship.

Aristotle: Men are engaged in politics as they try to define their positions in society, as they
struggle for scarce resources and as try to convince others to accept their points of view The
essence of human existence is (The conclusion of Aristotle’s assumption is that, man is a
political animal).

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Harold Lasswell: Who Gets What, When, and How?
Harold Lasswell: Politics is the shaping and sharing of power
David Easton: The authoritative allocation of values in the society
Peter Merki: The Quest for Power, Order and Justice
Quincy Wright: The art of influencing, manipulating, and controlling others
Austin Ranny: Politics is the process of resolution of conflict in society
Vermon Dyke: Politics is the struggle among actors pursuing conflicting desires on public issues
Earnest Baker: Politics is the activity (such as negotiation, argument, discussion, application of
intellectual ideas, and persuasion) by which an issue is agitated or settled.
Earnest Baker: The process of making and execution of governmental decisions or policies
Harrold Lasswell and Abraham Kaplan: Politics is a setting designed to resolve social conflicts
and to set collective goals of the state. The Greek: The process by which (men) people debate
matters concerning the political community and take actions in an attempt to realize the public
interest or the common good

Max Weber: Politics is the operation of the state and its institutions, striving to share power or
striving to influence the distribution of power among individuals and groups within a state
Lord Bismarck: Politics is the art of the possible. The above definitions of politics clearly shows
the correlation between military and politics.

Relationship of Political Science to Other Academic Disciplines

Political Science cannot be studied in isolation, consequently, the discipline is enriched by a
recognition of its interrelationship with the branches of learning, such as History, Sociology,
Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Psychology, Law, Mass Communication

1: History is past politics and politics is present is history

History provides political scientists accurate data on the past experience of states and their
governments. The political scientist frequently adopts a historical approach and employs
knowledge of the past when he seeks to interpret present and probable developments in political
phenomena.

2: Economics is the study of production, distribution, conservation, and consumption of wealth.

Political science and economics are intimately related. They are jointly concerned with the fact
that economic conditions affect the organization, development and activities of the states which
in turn modify or even prescribe economic conditions through their public policy measures.
Political scientist often adopts an economic approach when seeking to interpret such matters as
welfare states, international trade, tax policy, public finance and the relationship between
government and business. The emphasis on political economy by political scientists shows the
mutual impact and interrelatedness of politics and economics.

3: Mass Communication is the impacting or exchange of information on a large scale to a wide

range of people. Mass communication is defined as the act of a person, group of people, or
organization relaying a message through a channel of communication to a large group of

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anonymous and heterogeneous people and organization. There is a branch of political science
called, political communication. Political scientist adopt SWOT {strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats} analysis, to interpret events.

4: Sociology and is the study of society as a whole, while anthropology is the study of mankind
in relation to physical, social, and cultural development. They are all deeply concerned with the
origins and nature of social control and governmental authority, as well as with the patterns of
human behaviour in society.

5: Psychology is the study of mental and emotional processes motivating the political behaviour
of individuals and groups. The psychological approach to political analysis is therefore useful in
understanding social, psychological and cultural influences on behaviour in the political realm.

6: Geography is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of earth. Geography
is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of earth and its human and national
complexities, not merely how objects are, but how they have changed and come to be.

7: Philosophy and political science are mutually dependent. The concepts and doctrines of Plato,
Aristotle, Locke, Hobbes and other political thinkers are useful. These concepts have been the
underlying forces in the framing of constitutions and laws of most countries.

Development: According to Walter Rodney

• Development is many sided process, at the level of the individual and at the level of the
social groups.
• At the level of the individual, it implies increased skills and capacity, creativity, greater
freedom, responsibility, self-discipline and material well-being.
• At the level of the social groups, it implies ability to harness the various potential that
would lead to reducing external and internal aggression; the maintenance and promotion of
peaceful co-existence, without necessarily relying on ethnicity or religion (see Rodney, 1972:1).

Dudley Seers: Inequality, Poverty and Unemployment

Three basic to ask, are: what has been happening to the level of poverty, what has been
happening to the level of inequality and finally, what has been happening to the level of
unemployment? If two out of the three have improved, there is development, if otherwise, there
is no development. To domesticate the operational definition of development, examine the levels
of poverty, inequality and unemployment in Nigeria since 1999 to date.

Development according to Enojo (2010), refers to deliberate but conscious improvement, making
mistakes, but not a repeated one, and concentrating on innovation through espionage and
scientific exploration and making sure that, electricity, technology and other facilities are
promoted vigorously. Enojo notes that, growth is not development, growth focuses on weight,
size and age while development make emphasis on physical and environmental factors. GDP is
an example of economic growth, which is quantitative (Numerical figures) while core values of

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societal needs as social amenities in the nature of electricity, telecommunication, roads ,
alternative means of transportation, qualitative education, health care service delivery,
employment and welfare.

Governance
• Voice and accountability
• Absence of Political instability, Political Violence and Terrorism
• Government effectiveness
• Regulatory Quality Control
• Rule of law and
• Control of corruption (Enojo, 2011)

Issues and Challenges of Development

• Weaker Institutions
• Praetorian Society (Primordial Sentiments, Pork Barrel Politics)
• Lack of ideology created weaker civil society and the media
• Poor Leadership at all levels of Governance
• Lack of Development
• Inequality, Poverty, and Unemployment
• Low Political Culture and Socialization (Parochial, Subject and Participant)
• Lack of stronger Opposition Political Party manifesto (Enojo, 2011)

Political Culture and Socialization

• Orientations of problem-solving: are they pragmatic or rationalistic?
• Orientations to collective action: are they cooperative or non-cooperative?
• Orientations to the political system: are they allegiance or alienated?
• Orientations to other people: are they truthful or mistrustful?

Basic Theories of Issues in Development

(1) Structural-Functional Approach
• Interest articulation
• Interest aggregation.
• Rule-making,
• Rule-application
• Rule-adjudication
• Political Communication
• Systems Maintenance………Enojo , 2010

Classes Redefined
According to VI Lenin in his book, “A Great Beginning” classes are large group of people
differing from each other by the place they occupy in historically determined system of social
production, by their relations to the means of production, by their role in social organization of

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labour and consequently, by their dimension of the share of social wealth of which they dispose
and the mode of acquiring such wealth (Cited in Enojo, 2011)

Ted Gurr
1: The greater the extent of discrepancies that Men see between what they seek and what seems
to be attainable the greater their anger and consequence disposition of their aggression

2: Men who feel that they have many ways to attain their goals and less likely to become angry
when one is blocked

3: Access to greater opportunities is an important fact here because power is nothing control, the
more primitive accumulation of wealth

4: The greater intensity of Men expectations, the greater their anger when they meet unexpected,
disappointments or setbacks (Enojo, 2012)