Exploring Political Science Sub-fields, Questions, and Theory

Sub-fields of Political Science at American Universities - Sub-field: An area of specialization in which teaching and/or research within the discipline of Political science - Four primary “Sub-fields” of Political Science - International Relations - Comparative Politics - American Politics - Political theory Three Types of Empirical Questions within Political Science - Descriptive - Questions which ask us to describe something - Who? What? Where? When? - Explanatory - Questions which ask us to explain something - Why? How? - Predictive - Questions which ask us to predict a future event or outcome - Who will? What will? Political Theory and Normative Questions - Normative questions - Ask us to judge political phenomena - Usually include the word

- Example: Should more people participate in politics? Why should they? - Political theory and the empirical world - Does not ignore the empirical world but focuses more on this normative aspect - Goal of political theory is to initiate new ways of thinking about, evaluating, and Judging the political - More concerned with concepts than data, evidence, etc. - But again, explores these concepts in terms of what should be- the ideal The “Great Conversation” of Political Theory - Emphasis in judgement - Unique sub-field within political science for this reason - Also, probably the oldest way of thinking about politics - Begins in Ancient Greece and explodes during Golden Age of Ancient Athens - Ability to empirically investigate politics comes much later - Idea of a “great conversation” refers to the enduring normative questions which Persist through the ages - In political theory, we are often asking the same question which others have Asked before us though we may arrive at different answers The Rise of “Social Sciences Positivism” - 1940s-1950s - Rise of a scientific approach to studying politics – emphasis on empirical questions - New access to data and information - New statistical methods

- Rise of public opinion polling - Facts v. values - Separation of the empirical realm of facts from the normative realm of values - Normative questions of “what should be” seen as beyond the competence of science - Social science should aspire to value neutrality Berlin on the “Demise of a Discipline” - Two reasons why academic disciplines die - Central presuppositions no longer accepted - New disciplines come to perform the work originally undertaken in the older Form of study - Example of phrenology - Berlin asking - Do either of these apply to political theory? - Has normative questioning regarding politics become obsolete? Is Political Theory Dead? - No - Central presuppositions still hold - Still viewed as valuable that we ask ourselves what should exist about politics - Nothing has stepped in to do the work which political theory did previously - Political theory is not like phrenology – it is not an aspect of intellectual endeavor that We now consider antiquated, obsolete, useless - What’s happening in the early 1960s that leads Berlin to say this question is absurd

Why is political theory unique in relation to empirical inquiry - Berlin not only says that political theory hasn’t been replaced by empirical inquiry – he says This can’t happen - Empirical methods of political analysis ask questions that can be answered via certain Methods - Political theory asks questions in which there can be no universally accepted answer, Nor a single method by which to arrive at one - Why do we obey our government? Berlin on the Importance of “Pluralism” - Berlin a tireless advocate for human liberty – precisely because there are no single answers To core political questions - Politics is about pluralism – the idea that society needs to provide space for as many Different ideas, identities, and positions as we possibly can - Berlin juxtaposes this to monism – the belief in a single universal truth or ideology - Leads to absurdities in theory and barbarous consequences in practice Political Theory’s Relationship to Political Science – Three Roles - Conceptual - Political theory is the realm in which we define our most fundamental concepts - Historical - Political theory is the realm in which we explain the history of ideas and the impact Which they have had on political outcomes - Programmatic

- Political theory is the realm in which we articulate a political program, a concrete Conception of what the world we desire ought to look like and why