Lecture 1

• Political science emphasizes people over institutions, focusing on the systematic study of the behavior of institutions.
• Political science emphasizes institutions over people, focusing on the systematic study of the behavior of organizations.
• The behavioral approach, a shift from institutions towards individuals, studies individuals, as the unit of analysis, rather than institutions, for example, legislators instead of legislature, judges rather than courts.
• The behavioral approach generalizes about political attitudes and behavior and applies innovative social science techniques, for example, experiments.
• Power is the capacity to bring about intended effects, according to Lasswell.
• Politics is the study of shaping and sharing power, according to Harold Lasswell.
• Theoretical approaches can explain differences, for example, between North and South Korea, North and South America.
• Institutions are pillars of the order in (liberal democratic) politics, providing sources of continuity and predictability.
• Power can come from different sources: Political/legal, Economic, Physical/coercive, Information/ideas/expertise, Social norms/values, Personal/charisma, Numbers/size.
• Politics can be studied from different theoretical approaches, such as the school of thoughts or ways of study politics, which influence what questions to ask and where and how we should search for answers.
• The institutional approach, also known as one of the historical theoretical approaches and remains an important tradition in comparative politics, positions within organizations matter more than the people who occupy them, and institutions provide the rules of the game and shape individual behaviors.
• Theoretical approaches include the institutional approach, behavioral approach, rational-choice approach, structural approach, cultural approach, and interpretive approach.
• Criticism of the interpretive approach is that it misses commonplace observation and is more aspiration than achievement.
• Criticism of the rational-choice approach is that individual rationality leads to a poor collective result and people are not always rational actors.
• The rational-choice approach is rooted in ahistorical economics, with the elementary unit of social life being individual human action.
• The rational-choice approach is based on a universal model of human behavior, which is questionable.
• Public surveys are objective, 'value-free' research, scientific explanation rather than descriptions.
• Criticism of public surveys is that they focus too much on science and not enough on politics.
• The structural approach is more open to change than institutionalists, emphasizing objective relationships among social groups rather than the interests and outlooks of particular actors.
• The cultural approach explores how cultural norms and practices support or undermine different political preferences or forms.
• The interpretive approach focuses on ideas and interpretations, identities, constructions, meanings and narratives, arguing that structures of human association are determined by shared ideas rather than material forces and that identities and interests of actors are constructed by shared ideas rather than given by nature.
• The interpretive approach is a social approach rather than a psychological one, arguing that political affairs cannot be a behavioral science seeking laws but rather must be an interpretative one seeking meaning.
• Rationality and self-interest are core assumptions in the rational-choice approach.
• The structural approach emphasizes the objective interrelationship between social groups, correcting the limitation of individual-level analysis.
• International News can be accessed through BBC, CNN, Euronews, Economist, etc.
• Politics: The heart of politics is often portrayed as a process of conflict resolution.
• Political Science: Introduction defines it as the study of governments, public policies and political processes, systems and political behavior.
• Political science: An Introduction is a course that aims to provide students with the learning objectives, structure, reading materials, and assessment and examination.
• Politics: An area where behavior becomes political because of its inherent conflict and cooperation, such as Politics as Conflict and Compromise.
• Political Science: A social science discipline, as per Aristotle, is the study of governments, public policies and political processes, systems and political behavior.
• Political Studies/Science: sub-fields include Political Theory, Philosophy, History, Ideology, Political Economy, Political Psychology, Comparative Politics, International Relations, National Politics, Public Administration & Policy Studies.
• Politics: An area where behavior becomes political because of its location, such as art of government, public affairs, or public/private divide.
• Politics: A process where behavior becomes political because of its distinctive qualities, such as Politics as Compromise and Consensus, Politics as Power, or Politics as Conflict and Compromise.
• Politics: Politics is, above all, a social activity, always a dialogue, and never a monologue.
• Politics: An inescapable presence of diversity and scarcity ensures that politics is an inevitable feature of the human condition.
• Politics: The process by which people negotiate and compete in making and executing collective decisions.