Political science

Political science is the scientific study of politics and the conduct of political affairs. It is a social science that studies systems of governance and power, as well as the study of political activities, political thinking, political conduct, and the constitutions and laws that regulate these systems of governance and power.

Modern political science may be split into three subdisciplines: comparative politics, international relations, and political theory. Comparative politics is the most widely studied of the three subdisciplines. Other prominent subdisciplines include public policy and administration, domestic politics and governance (which is frequently studied as a subfield of comparative politics), political economics, and political methodology, among many others. Also of note, political science is intertwined with and relies on the disciplines of economics, law, sociology, history, philosophy, human geography, journalism, political anthropology, psychology, and social policy, to name a few.

When it comes to methodology, political science is a varied field that draws on psychology, social research, and cognitive neuroscience to achieve its goals and objectives. Positivism, interpretivism, rational choice, behavioral genetics, structuralism, comment, realism, institutionalism, and pluralism are some of the approaches that have been developed. As one of the social sciences, political science employs methods and techniques that are appropriate for the types of inquiries that are being pursued. These include primary sources such as historical documents and official records, secondary sources such as scholarly journal articles, survey research, statistical analysis, case studies, experimental research, and model building, among others.