THE çscience Ppolitical, one of the areas of çevidence sofficers, is responsible for studying the political structures of human groups, trying to understand how the structures of power. Thus, this science intends to conceptualize notions such as the State, government, forms of human organization, in addition to studying the performance of other institutions that interfere in political organization, such as private companies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and religious institutions.
How should a society organize itself? What is the legitimacy of power over one another? How should society act to ensure the smooth running of social relations? These are some of the problems raised by political science, which tries to provide a scientific theoretical basis to support the practical action of governments and political organizations. The ancient Greeks called it praxis this need to think and reflect on the action before putting it into practice. Provide a theoretical basis for the praxis politics it is the main task of political science.
Read too:Government regimes: the ways in which a government can behave in power
political science in history
Before Ancient Greece, some societies have developed complex political systems based on ways of establishing and organizing power. We can elect as examples of these societies ancient Egypt and China. However, it was the Greeks who were the first to think and try to establish intellectual systems about how the political practice should be organized. In this sense, we have the Greeks as the first to think about the praxispolitics.
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle they were the first to ask themselves what political organization should be like to guarantee the best means of practical intervention in the world. At the time of the classical philosophers, there was still no talk of a science of political organization, but we find in them the historical importance of those who first asked themselves about the way in which politics should be organized.
Between the Rebirth and modernity, we observe philosophers who also made significant contributions to constitution of political science, which would only establish itself as a methodical and well-articulated science in the nineteenth century. One of these philosophers was the Florentine political theorist Nicholas Machiavelli, who wrote one of the most important political treatises of modernity, entitledThe prince. In this work, the author sought to establish the bases for a ruler to be able to maintain a stable government.
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
The philosophers Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes, continuing the historical line of political thought, dedicated themselves to defending the absolutism as a legitimate form of government in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was the english philosopher John Locke, however, which inaugurated a new form of political thought in modernity: the liberalismpolitical. An advocate of a parliamentary system of government, Locke came to advocate a political system that would not put up with abuses. of a centralized government and allowed the natural right to life, liberty and, above all, property toilet.
Before the delimitation of political science as an autonomous science, we still have the contributions of the Enlightenment Philosophers of the eighteenth century, especially the French, to think about the limits and attributions of politics in the modern world. The illuminists, in general, defended the end of the ancien regime (absolutism, which concentrated all political power in the hands of the ruler and gave him unrestricted power) and forms of political organization that guaranteed the maintenance of rights to the people.
Voltaire, one of the Enlightenment philosophers, defended the secularity of the state, a religious freedom and the freedom of expression. Another great illuminist was the philosopher Charles de Montesquieu, which defended a republican state with powers divided into three instances: the Legislative, O ANDexecutive it's the Jauditorium. This form, adopted until today by many republics, limits power by preventing its concentration in the hands of just one person, thus making abuse impossible.
The most important milestone for the consolidation of political science as an autonomous and rigorously established field of knowledge occurred in the nineteenth century. Amid the emergence of sociology through the philosopher's ideas Auguste Comte and of the first sociologists – the French philosopher, sociologist and jurist Emile Durkheim and the German philosopher, sociologist and economist Karl Marx -, the need arose to also think about the political conceptions.
That's why the American historian Herbert Baxter Adams it founded a new field of social sciences, which would be responsible for studying only political formations, receiving contributions and mutually contributing to the other social sciences.
Read too: Classical thinkers of sociology
the political science course
From the 20th century onwards, with the establishment and full recognition of the sociology and the social sciences as scientific areas of extreme importance for the understanding of complex societies, it was understood that political science could not be left out of these studies. Thus, the higher courses in çscience Ppolitical, first in the United States, France and Germany, and then in other countries. In Brazil, the first university course in political science emerged in the 1930s, in the USP.
In general, political science courses are specific qualifications for social science courses. There are subjects from a common grid of social sciences, such as sociology, economics, anthropology, psychology and politics, which are complemented with specific disciplines such as political formations, political strategies, history of politics, statistics and forms of government.
Importance of Political Science
It is impossible to understand the mechanisms of power in society, especially in post-capitalist societies, without studying political science. Also, for the politicians play a significant role. nowadays, it is necessary that they themselves (or their advisors) study political science, because the actors of the three spheres of power in our republic (Legislative, Executive and Judiciary) must be knowledgeable in science politics.
We can choose as the four basic concepts from political science the ideas of citizenship, City, right and State. The State is an attempt to delimit the notions of power that are widespread in society. Law is the notion that implies the participation of all citizens as those who are entitled to a share of what is offered by society. the notion of citizenship it is what allows political participation in the formation of society and recognition of the role of the citizen (those who participate in the political formation of the city). Finally, the city is the political institution that groups human beings within a legal, geographical and social structure.
by Francisco Porfirio
Sociology Professor
