politicalscience

Political science is the systematic study of politics, government, and public affairs. It examines how political power is obtained, exercised, and constrained; how institutions shape policy outcomes; and how individuals and groups influence political processes. The field analyzes elections, legislatures, parties, constitutions, bureaucracies, and international interactions, as well as political ideologies, values, and behavior. It employs a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, including case studies, surveys, experiments, statistical analysis, formal modeling, and comparative analysis.

Major subfields include political theory, which explores ideas about justice, authority, rights, and legitimacy; comparative politics, which studies political systems and behavior across countries; international relations, which analyzes diplomacy, wars, cooperation, and global governance; public policy and administration, which investigates policy formation, implementation, and public sector management; political economy, which examines the interaction between politics and economic systems; and political psychology, which probes how individual beliefs and emotions influence political actions.

Political science developed from philosophy, law, and administrative studies and matured as a social science in the 20th century, with shifts such as behavioralism and rational-choice theory influencing research methods. The discipline has also emphasized institutional analysis and comparative methods to understand variation across political systems.

It informs public debate, policy evaluation, and governance reform. Researchers seek to explain policy successes and failures, evaluate democratic institutions, and forecast political developments. It overlaps with sociology, economics, law, philosophy, history, and area studies, and relies on data from elections, legislatures, courts, surveys, and policy reports.