Introduction to Political Science

• The science dealing with the form, organization and

administration of a state, or part of one, and with the
regulation of its relation with other states.
• Art of living and working together.
• The study of the process of making public decisions and the
individuals of those institutions that participate in the process –
Austin Ranney
• The study of who gets what when and how (Harold Laswell)
• Who – who are involved in the politics
• How – the activities in politics (voting, campaigning, lobbying)
• When – when that activity takes place
• What – What the authority does/ action taken as result of those activities
• It is a study of how people administer their ownselves (Kapur)
• It is a study about human actions and how these actions are
controlled or guarded (Catlin)
 Economics

Geography Philosophy

Political
Science
Law History

Psychology Sociology
• Economics is a social science or branch of study that concerns
itself with the problem of allocating scarce resources so as to
attain the optimum satisfaction of society’s unlimited wants.
• Political policymakers cannot disassociate themselves from
certain economic terms like budget, income, welfare state,
labour, unemployment, capital, monetary system, growth, zakah,
taxes, finance, mudarabah, musharakah, debts and balance of
payments.
• Politics and economics complement and supplement each other.
• Political theories about the origin of the state, individualism,
democracy, communism, the separation of governmental powers,
and others are but a few examples of the personal philosophies
of those who advocated them.
• These theories has widened the horizons of knowledge of
students in studying political science.
• Whenever political scientist make a study of a state and its
political institutions, they depend on history in knowing the
state’s origin, its growth and development makes it necessary
for political scientist to rely on historical facts.
• What is happening now and what the political scientist going to
plan depends on the history
• If human beings are to live together, they have to accept certain
rules of conduct made by public authorities.
• The regulations made by public authorities are called laws.
• Government will formulate, administer and enforced laws.
• Without law, no country can survive peacefully and the effort to
control behavior of the citizen will become so difficult.
• Geography means to describe or write about earth.
• It studies about the earth; its lands, features, inhabitants and
phenomena.
• Geographical location is an important factor in ensuring the
destiny of every state
• It greatly influences its national and international policies and
political institutions.
• Psychology deals with human behavior whether individual or
group
• It explains the motives of human action
• It contributes greatly to political science’s understanding such as
phenomena like nationalism, revolutionary, leadership, voting
behavior and causes of war.
• Psychology concerned with mental acts that must be considered
in relation to the observable individual minds.
• Human minds control and initiates the human behavior.
• It is the study of society as a whole.
• Students must understand of how the state exercises its power
and authority over its citizens.
• There are many social problems that need to be solved by the
authority such as crime, marital relations problems, juvenile
delinquency, housing problems, and many more.
• The data from those cases will be used to make laws in the
future.
 Political
Theory

Public
Administration
Political
Science
International
Relation

Comparative
Politics
• History of ideas, a guiding principle before facts can be
collected.
• Usually begins with the ancient Greeks and extending to
present day political thinkers.
• It includes empirical theory in which the researchers develop
propositions about political relationship.
• These propositions are then subjected to empirical test by
collecting information which can actually be observed.
• Example: Theory of Origin of the State
 Plato

Aristotle

Ibn Khaldun
• Methods of managing and administering the government.
• Since government has become very important, it needs trained
personnel, management and supervision for more efficient
performance of government functions and for better
government organization.
• It involves execution of public policy which leads to a policy
decision and its implementation.
• It focuses on foreign and national security policies, diplomacy
and rivalry, cooperation and warfare among states.
• It studies international law and international organizations such
as ASEAN and OIC.
• Also studies how countries are interacted, what makes them
interact in that way, studies war and its consequences.
• Very challenging field.
• Studies the similarities and differences among states as regards
to their executive, legislative, judicial bodies, constitutions, laws,
administrative, foreign policies, political parties etc.
• It tries to explain why this country has many political parties
and why this country practice democracy, why rich countries
exploit poor countries and why poor countries depending to the
rich countries.