Portal:Politics/Selected article/2006, week 44

Political science is the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior.

Fields and subfields of political science include political theory and philosophy, political concepts, political systems and ideology, game theory, psephology (voting systems and electoral behaviour), political economy, geopolitics and political geography, policy studies and public policy analysis, comparative politics, national systems, cross-national political analysis, supranational and intergovernmental politics, globalisation studies, political development, international relations, foreign policy analysis, peace studies, international law and politics, public administration and local government studies, political psychology, bureaucratic, administrative and judicial behaviour, legislative processes and public law. Political Science also studies power in international relations and the theory of Great powers and Superpowers.

Political science is methodologically diverse. Approaches to the discipline include classical political philosophy, interpretivism, structuralism, and behavioralism, rationalism, realism, pluralism, and institutionalism. Political science, as one of the social sciences, uses methods and techniques that relate to the kinds of inquiries sought: primary sources such as historical documents and official records, secondary sources such as scholarly journal articles, survey research, statistical analysis, case studies, and model building.