Politics and Governance

• Politics refers to the activities and policies used to gain and hold power in a government or to influence the government
• Governance encompasses the structures and processes that ensure the effective and responsible use of power, including the formulation and implementation of policies
• Politics focuses on the pursuit and exercise of power, while governance is concerned with how that power is wielded and how decisions are made and implemented
• Politics exists because people disagree about the aims and methods of human endeavor
• Disagreements in politics can only be resolved by one side obtaining the power to make its viewpoint prevail
• The acquisition of power is a prerequisite for achieving political objectives
• Conflict is necessarily not bad in politics. There is no politics If there is no
• Politics is not dirty, but "dirty politics" happens when a person abuses the power they hold
• According to B. Pomton and P. Gill, Politics is the way in which we understand and order our social affairs and acquire greater control over the situation
• According to Amble Tuibeo, politics is the strategy for maintaining cooperation among people with different needs and ideals in life
• Political science is a classical discipline that deals with the study of political phenomena
• Political science focuses on the theory and practice of government and politics at different levels
• Political science deals with the systematic study of political structures, processes, and behavior
• Traditional approaches to the study of political science are largely normative and stress on the values of politics
• Traditional approaches focus on the study of different political structures and institutions
• Traditional approaches believe that studies in political science can never be scientific because facts and values are closely linked
• Behavioral approach to political science emphasizes scientific, objective, and value-free study of political phenomena
• Behavioral approach shifts its emphasis from the study of the state and government to the day-to-day problems and behavior of individuals and groups
• Behavioral approach believes in certain uniformities in political behavior that can be expressed in generalizations or theories
• Behavioral approach emphasizes on testing and verifying everything, using research tools that generate valid and reliable data
• Political science should not be separated from other social sciences like history, sociology, and economics
• It is important to care about politics to know what is going on around you, have a say in what will happen, and understand that decisions made in politics affect many lives
• There branches of Government

  Legislative, judiciary, executive
• this approach firmly believes that values cannot be separated from the study of politics and political system

  philosophical
• this emphasizes the study of history of every political reality to analyze any situation

  history
• this approach is concerned with the study of formal structures and institutions like the branches of government

  institutional
• this approach is concerned with legal process, legal bodies, or institutions, justice and independence of judiciary

  legal
• emphasizes testing and verifying everything

  verification
• put emphasis on the use of those research tools and methods which generate valid, reliable, and comparative data

  techniques
• after collecting data, researcher should measure and quantify those data

  quantification
• believe that to do objective research one has to be value free

  values
• research in polsci must be systematic. Theor and research should go together

  systematization
• believes that the study of polsci should be verified by evidence

  pure science
• polsci should not be separated from various other social sciences like history, sociology, and economics

  integration