JOHN JASPER P.

MACATANGAY ELET-4201
 THE SCIENCE OF POLITICS

 What is Political Science?

 It is the study of Polis, which means City.
 It treats the phenomenon of the State in its varied aspects and relationships. (Aruego
and Torres)
 It is the study of the State and all the dynamics that go with it.
 The analysis of the State and the relations people have with government. (Jacobsohn)
 It is the speacilaized study of the state, its government, and politics.
 The study of how organized disputes are articulated and then resolved by public
decisions made by the government.

 What is a State?
 It is a community of persons, more or less numerous, permanently occupying a fixed
territory, and possessed of an independent government organized for the political
ends to which great body oh inhabitants render habitual obedience.

 What is Politics?
 It requires human interaction and is present in all social relations no matter how small
the group or society may be.
 Two basic characteristics of politics:
 It involves in making decisions for a group of people
 Some individuals in the group exercise power over other members in order to
make a decision. (Jackson and Jackson)
 It embraces all activity which impinges upon the making of binding decisions about
who gets what, when, and how. It is an activity through which contending interests
are conciliated and differences are expressed and considered. (Shively)
 It consist of public issues which give rise to conflict. (Harris)
 It is about the social exercise of power rather than just the state. (Tansey)

 BASIC CONCEPTS OF POLITICS

 Order
 It is the primary thrust of politics as it seeks to understand how human life in the
aggregate is ordered.
 It is the balancing of the government’s responsibility to aid the needy with its
responsibility to protect the individual freedom.
 It is an authoritative command, direction, or instruction for the sake of the people.
 Power
 It is the primary thrust of politics as it seeks to understand how human life in the
aggregate is ordered.
 It is the balancing of the government’s responsibility to aid the needy with its
responsibility to protect the individual freedom.
 It is an authoritative command, direction, or instruction for the sake of the people.

 Justice
 It is necessary in politics in that each person in society is to have a right to as much
freedom as other.
 “Social and economic inequalities are to be so arranged that they are to the greatest
benefit of the least advantaged and attached to offices and positions open to all under
fair conditions of equal opportunity. (Axford)
 It is the application of power towards public interest and not just of and for the few
who rule.
 Justice is the legal or philosophical theory by which fairness is administered.