POLITICAL SCIENCE

INTRODUCTION AND AN OVERVIEW

PROF. EUGENE SERBANO ABDON
Differentiate Science to Natural
Science to Social Science
Science is an orderly arrangement of knowledge and
facts based on careful observation and
experimentation.
Natural science is a branch of science concerned
with the description, prediction, and understanding of
natural phenomena, based on observational and
empirical evidence.
Social Science is a major category of academic
disciplines, concerned with society and the
relationships among individuals within a society.

BRANCHES OF SOCIAL SCIENCES:
Economics is concerned with the human activities related to production, consumption and
distribution.
Human geography deals with the study of people and their communities, cultures, economies and
interactions with the environment by studying their relations with and across space and place.
Demography encompasses the study of the size, structure, and distribution of these populations, and
spatial or temporal changes in them in response to birth, migration, ageing, and death.
Psychology mainly interested in a wide range of psychological and behavioral processes. Social
psychology is the integration of the sociology and Psychology.
Anthropology It is the study of humans, early hominids and primates, such as chimpanzees.
Anthropologists study human language, culture, societies, biological and material remains, the
biology and behavior of primates, and even our own buying habits
Social anthropology and cultural anthropology study the norms and values of societies.
Archaeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture.
Jurisprudence it is the study and theory of law. It includes principles behind law that make the law.
History primarily descriptive of the chronology of the significant past events.
Linguistics It is the scientific study of language and involves an analysis of language form, language
meaning, and language in context.
SOCIOLOGY It is the study of social behavior or society, including its origins, development,
organization, networks, and institutions.
POLITICAL SCIENCE
IT COMES FROM A GREEK WORD POLIS (CITY) WHICH TODAY WOULD MEAN A
SOVEREIGN STATE AND SCIRE (SCIENCE)
IT IS THE STUDY OF THE PHENOMENA OF THE STATE AND GOVERNMENT,
PHENOMENA/PHENOMENON- it is something that can be observed and studied
and that typically is unusual or difficult to understand or to explain fully.
It is also a study of POLITICS such as:
The activities that relate to influencing the actions and policies of the
government or getting or keeping power in the government,
It is also the work or job of elected and non-elected officials who are part of
the government,
It is also the opinions that someone has about what should be done by the
governments a persons political thoughts and opinions. (POLITICAL BEHAVIOR)
ARISTOTLE (324-322 B.C) a Greek philosopher, is credited with observation
that Man is by nature a POLITICAL ANIMAL
He meant that the basic underlying substance of HUMAN EXISTENCE is
Politics, that is, that man is predisposed to Politics.
WHY DO WE STUDY POLITICS?
Blacks Law Dictionary (1990) define politics as the science of the
Government and the art on practice of administering public affairs.
Accordingly, Politics is the process of making the government policies. By
nature, POLITICS everywhere involves CONFLICT- that is, some form of
struggle among people trying to achieve different goals and satisfy
opposing interest.
Every Filipino comes to face to face with politics in almost every aspect
of his life. He encounters politics in school, in the church, in the business
establishment, the employees union where he is a member or in a socio-
civic organization and a myriad of situation. You may ignore politics but
you can never escape its influence it.
 SUBFIELDS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
international relations, or international affairs, depending on academic institution, is either a field
of political science, an interdisciplinary academic field similar to global studies, or an entirely
independent academic discipline in which students take a variety of internationally focused
courses in social science and humanities disciplines.
In all cases, the field studies relationships between political entities (polities) such as sovereign
states, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), international non-governmental organizations
(INGOs), other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multinational corporations (MNCs),
and the wider world-systems produced by this interaction. International relations is an academic
and a public policy field, and so can be positive and normative, because it analyses and
formulates the foreign policy of a given state.
political methodology. is a subfield of Political science that studies the quantitative methods used
to study politics. It combines statistics, mathematics, and formal theory. Political methodology is
often used for positive research, in contrast to normative research. It is similar to econometrics.
comparative politics, is a field in political science, characterized by an empirical approach based
on the comparative method. In other words, comparative politics is the study of the domestic
politics, political institutions, and conflicts of countries.
political theory,
public administration,
public policy, and political economy,
THE SCOPE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
POLITICAL THEORY It deals with the entire body of doctrines relating to the
origin for, behavior, and purposes of the State.
PUBLIC LAW is that part of law which governs relationships between
individuals and the government, and those relationships between individuals
which are of direct concern to society. It is also called.
PUBLIC POLICY it is the principled guide to action taken by the administrative
executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues, in a manner
consistent with law and institutional customs.
The foundation of public policy is composed of national constitutional laws
and regulations.
Further substrates include both judicial interpretations and regulations which
are generally authorized by legislation. Public policy is considered strong
when it solves problems efficiently and effectively, serves justice, supports
governmental institutions and policies, and encourages active citizenship.
PUBLIC LAW/PUBLIC POLICY
Are LAWS deals with:
Organizations of the Government;
Limitations upon the government authority;
Powers and Duties of Governmental offices and officers
Obligation of State to one another
SUBDIVISIONS OF PUBLIC LAW:
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW it is the fundamental law of the land which defines the power of the
Government.
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW it fixes the organization and determines the competence of the
administrative authorities which regulates the methods by which the function of the
government performed.
INTERNATIONAL LAW it is the body of rules, which regulates the community of nations.
Others are:
Criminal law
Procedural Law
Tax Law
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
It focuses on the methods and techniques used in the actual
management of State affairs by the three branches of the
Government: Executive, Legislative, Judiciary including all the
government offices whose function is to deliver service to its people.