POLITICAL SCIENCE

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TOPIC 18

• POLITICAL SCIENCE

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WHAT IS POL.SCI.?

• Examination of political institutions and public
  policy.
• The study of human behavior as it relates to
  governing and policy making.
• Politics making of public choices
• The study of how public choices are made, by
  whom, for what purposes, and with what
  consequences.

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INTRO

• Ancient Greek political thinkers Socrates,
  Plato, Aristotle
• 1st Pol. Sci. dept. at Columbia in 1880
• Politics involves changes world of flux,
  tensions, and transitions.

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APPROACHES

• Traditionalism analysis of the formal, legal,
  official side of political life
• Behavioralism looked at the actual behavior of
  politically involved individuals and groups.
• Postbehavioralism acknowledges the importance of
  values and ethics in the field.

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SUBFIELDS

• Comparative politics how different political
  systems operate
• American politics in U.S.
• International relations relationships between
  and among states
• Public policy how laws, regulations, and other
  policies are formulated, implemented, and
  evaluated
• Political methods many details of empirical
  social science
• Political theory normative questions, history,
  philosophy

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KEY CONCEPTS

• Political power ability to change the public
  choices made by others
• Power
• Force
• Persuasion
• Manipulation
• Exchange

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CONCEPTS CONT.

• Public all members of a polity or of a local
  community
• Public choice any choice affecting the public
  well-being

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DEMOCRACY

• People and the government are connected
• Participation
• Pluralism
• Developmentalism
• Protection
• Performance

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RIMMERMAN ARTICLE

• Key question What role should the citizen play?
• Framers of the constitution structured our govt
  to create barriers federalism branches
• American dream

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WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?

• 2 theories discussed
• 1. Participatory dem.
• A democracy of individual participation
• People should have the opportunity to make
  decision that affect our lives
• 2. Democratic elitism
• Limited democracy
• Our role is only to vote

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TRUE DEM. NOT POSSIBLE

• Role is unrealistic
• Not feasible
• Unrealistic demands
• Time
• Interest
• Too much participation leads to instability and
  govt overload

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TO DEVELOP A DEM., NEED

• Community identity
• Citizenship
• Self-determination
• What are ways to participate?

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CONTENT STANDARDS

• Students understand the purposes of government,
  and the basic constitutional principles of the
  U.S. republican form of government.
• Students know the structure and function of
  local, state, and national government and how
  citizen involvement shapes public policy.

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CONTENT STANDARDS

• Students know the political relationship of the
  U.S. and its citizens to other nations and to
  world affairs.
• Students understand how citizens exercise the
  roles, rights and responsibilities of
  participation in civic life at all levels
  local, state and national.