Free Essay: Politics, Political Science and Government

Politics originated from Greek word polis which basically refers to a people for society. It is the process of acquiring positions of governance and exercising them to control human beings. Politics usually involve individuals or even groups with strongly competing interests to join leadership of a country, organization or even state.

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Political science refers to the study of systems of government together with analysis of various political activities. Politics in real life may include an instance where two individuals have conflicting ideologies on a particular topic or activity. This in the end leads to the individuals having different personal interests based on the individuals short-term goals. Most politicians will therefore always just think of how they will themselves gain from the decisions they make rather than how the public or the state will benefit. Political scientists are usually more accurate in their analysis than the politicians who are usually more concerned with popularity.

Government refers to the political control that is usually imposed on the people by the state or the organization in control. This is usually achieved with the help of power that in most cases is usually bestowed upon the government. Power refers to the ability to influence peoples behavior with the aim of achieving self- interest. A government can either be democratic, republican, monarchy, aristocratic, dictatorial or even democratic republican. A democratic government for instance refers to the government type in which most powers are in the hands of the public. John Locke argues that every person has a right to defend their liberty and freedom at all time. He says that this right is usually provided by nature while rules are created by the civil service and meant to be followed.

Rousseaus view of the world states that states of nature are regarded primitive if law and morality is not obeyed. He claims that the morality and law can be obeyed yet people remain to be in competition. He defines sovereignty to be the situation in which the people have the mandate to make their laws. The legitimacy of power is seen to differ from one country to the next depending on the people being ruled. People tend think that the power in place is legitimate if they feel well protected and are assured of security.

Ontologies, Epistemologies and Theories

The philosophical study of nature and existence is referred to as ontology. It includes the Cogito Ergo Sum principle that argues that someone is what he or she is. Reality refers to the actual state in which things are rather than how they appear to be. Reality is very important in the analysis of politics since we must be well aware of what is there at the moment so as to make future political projections.

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that deals with the study of knowledge with respect to scope and validity of the available information. Knowledge can be acquired by various means for instance, scientific method and observation. Empirical study refers to the study of the world as we can see it. Another approach to knowledge acquiring can be the trial and error method. A study or investigation that leads one to understanding how something works is known as analysis. For instance you can investigate the relationship between you and your mothers sister and find that she is your aunt. This is called analysis. It is very helpful in the political field since political science basically deals with the analysis of political moves and data. Four modes of acquiring knowledge were explained. Empiricism is the acquiring of knowledge by perception or an individuals senses. Idealism is the extraction of knowledge from the innate minds. Rationalism is the ability to generalize what we see in the world from empirical analysis. Constructivism is the acquiring of knowledge by visualizing how we construct the world around us.

Understanding the cause of an occurrence is the basis for any political analysis activity. A thesis can be defined as the main idea or claim behind an occurrence that needs to be proved by evidence. For instance you may be interested in proving the claim that most youths drop out of school due to alcohol abuse. Aristotle and Plato came up two major classical theories for analyzing political science. They are the normative and descriptive analysis of political science. Descriptive involves explaining what is there at the moment while normative explains what ought to be there. The modern political science theories include behaviourlism, postbehavourialism, systems theory and rational choice theory.

Ideologies

These refer to a group of political views arranged in a coherent order to form a belief system. The ideas are usually aimed at ensuring that individuals in a society achieve a better life and development. Having equal access to educational amenities is an example of a belief system that emanate from communal ideologies. Ideologies are the concepts that usually bring people together to form political movements. There are six common types of ideologies; the socialism, anarchism, libertarianism, libertarianism socialism, conservation, arnacho capitalism.

Smith argued that a countrys wealth is not measured by the amount of money it has but on the amount of wealth that can be produced by its citizens in a year. He as well argued that competition increases invention in any market system. These are real life examples of classic liberalism ideologies. Conservatism ideology expects that people rely on pre-established beliefs such as morality and religion. Modern liberalism focuses on ensuring freedom and respect for the rights of all individuals in the society. Social democracy ideology argues that markets can operate independently but are not allowed to own all the factors of production.

The ideology of communism argues that the state should own all the property and economic activity then redistribute the profits to business personnel and other stakeholders. The ideology that exaggerates a countrys ability is known as nationalism. It is an ideology that tries to convince the people of a nation that their country is much more important and well established than the other countries. This is usually a strategy used by politicians to look for votes.

Citizenship, Society and State

This refers to the right to full membership or partnership to a country, state or nation. Citizens are assumed to have equal rights and are expected to live by all rules of the state. This is the liberal political tradition ideology. The ability to require the undertaking of a given activity is known as a right. The three major elements of citizenship are the civil, political and social aspects. Freedom of speech, right to own property is examples of an individuals civil right.

The right to vote or take part in any countrys political activity is an individuals political right. The right to share in full social heritage of a nation is an example of the social aspect of citizenship. A revolution takes place when part of the civil society is not contented and yearns for autonomy.