politologia

Politologia, or political science, is the systematic study of political life. It seeks to understand the distribution, exercise, and effects of power; the organization and operation of political institutions such as legislatures, executives, judiciaries, and bureaucracies; and the behavior of political actors, including voters, parties, movements, and interest groups. The field covers the production of public policy, governance, political culture, and how economic and social factors interact with political processes. In many languages, politologia or equivalent terms refer to the discipline of political science.

Subfields include comparative politics (comparing political systems and processes across countries), international relations (relationships between states and non-state actors), political theory (normative questions about justice, rights, and the good society), public administration and public policy (government implementation and policy analysis), and political economy (the interaction of politics and economics). Additional areas include security studies, empirical methods, and political methodology.

Historically, modern political science emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries from moral and legal philosophy and sociology, evolving with behavioralism and rational-choice theory, followed by later pluralist, feminist, and post-structuralist perspectives. Methodological tools include case studies, surveys, experiments, statistical modeling, and formal modeling such as game theory.

Professionally, politologia is taught at many universities as undergraduate and graduate study. Graduates work in academia, government and international organizations, think tanks, journalism, and non-governmental organizations. The discipline aims to provide analysis for understanding political systems, informing policy decisions, and explaining political change.