Object and subject of political science

Political science is a science that studies all aspects of world politics, its cultural, sociological, psychological, institutional, and geographical features. And what is politics? The answer to this question can be quite multifaceted, since there is still no exact and clear definition of this concept. However, recently it has been generally accepted to regard politics as a sphere of state activity related to the interaction of various class, national, social groups in solving problems of conquest, retention and development of state power. This is the reality of any civilized state.

Object and subject of political science

Political science takes to study all aspects of the world political system, accordingly, the object of its interest will be world political reality. But this reality is studied in different aspects by other sciences - philosophy, psychology, sociology, history , etc. What makes it possible to distinguish political science into a separate branch of scientific knowledge? This is the subject of the study. But for a long time scientists-political scientists could not come to a consensus and give a clear definition of the subject of this science. Only in 1948 a group of experts from European countries and America highlighted the problems studied by political science. These include: political history, political institutions and public organizations, party associations and movements, as well as international relations.

The ambiguous view of the object and subject of political science is connected, first of all, with the desire of many Western political scientists to divide science into two branches - applied and theoretical. Thus, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the American scientist Seymour Lipset singled out political sociology as an independent branch and considered the object of its study the structure and functioning of the institutions of state power and various political associations and their interaction with society. Many scholars, following S. Lipset, proposed to identify political science and political sociology and formulated the subject of political science in the following way: studying how society uses the political institutions that regulate its life, and accumulates political ideas for its development.

But, all the same, the general support was expressed by the view that political science is an integral science that includes many aspects of the study of society and, accordingly, the object and subject of political science include several important components. These include: the level of the political culture of consciousness in society; Political institutions, parties and factions; Interstate and intra-state political interaction; Subjects of political life, namely, an individual, a social group, political leaders and the management elite.

The subject and method of political science

Political science as a set of different sciences, having separate subjects, methods and approaches in the study of political phenomena of society, unites with them only an object - political reality. Political science unites and accumulates all the knowledge received by other social sciences and the results of investigations of a multifaceted political life. It follows that the subject and object of political science can be defined as the study of the multifacetedness of political relations, the functioning and development of various political institutions in different state systems, the study of the political life of people, ruling parties and their interaction with the goal of maintaining and maintaining power.

Of course, the study of all these phenomena occurs with the use of various scientific methods. What is the method? This is a construction of certain techniques and methods of obtaining and achieving scientific knowledge. In modern political science, various methods of research are used, both traditional and new. Historical, comparative, institutional methods should be referred to traditional ones, to the newest methods of expert assessments, business games, methods of simulation modeling, structuring and mathematical modeling.

A complex and ambiguous view of the object and subject of political science is explained by the unorthodox and multidimensional approach to this branch of scientific knowledge, which consists of a set of independent scientific disciplines that study certain aspects of the political life of society and have their own subject and methodology of research.