Handbook

Subject Area: Politics and International Relations

The systematic study of politics has a long history, stretching back some two and a half thousand years to the ancient Greeks. Over the last century, however, it has become institutionalised and professionalised and, as the disciplinary name Political Science suggests, has sought to put the study of politics on a footing comparable to the aims, methods, and conventions presumed integral to the natural sciences. Yet the possibility, desirability, and even meaning of a “science of politics” are controversial issues. This course examines fundamental questions about what political knowledge is and how it is acquired. In the first weeks, you will explore in a general way what it might mean to be a “student of politics.” You will learn about the different fields of political science and examine the idea of a systematic and dispassionate study of anything. You will consider the modern history of the discipline and identify the different and often conflicting perspectives regarding the appropriate aims, scope, and methods of political inquiry. Thereafter, the course will proceed each week by examining in detail a particular analytical perspective in conjunction with a real-world case study: behaviouralism, marxism, interpretivism, institutionalism, rational choice theory, the structure versus agency problem, the relation between institutions, values and culture, and normative approaches.