Video in Arabic.
Political science is one of the core branches of the social sciences. Its task is to study political theory and how it works in practice in human societies. The field is not limited to abstract theorising: it also describes and analyses political systems in detail, seeks to understand the dynamics that shape the political behaviour of individuals and groups, and measures how these institutional interactions affect the structure of society and the historical development of states. Its studies are usually marked by academic depth and rigorous research, with the aim of offering objective readings of a complex political reality.
Political science branches into several specialised sub-fields that cover every aspect of political action. The best known are comparative politics, which studies the differences and similarities between political systems; political economy, which analyses the complex relationship between wealth and power; and political theory (or political philosophy), which examines the moral and intellectual foundations of legitimate government. To these we can add political methodology, public policy, public administration and international relations. The discipline also deals with central questions such as the development of national systems, transnational politics, international law, the history of political thought, civil liberties and human rights. Because political phenomena are so complex, political science overlaps closely with economics, law, sociology, history, philosophy and geography, and even with psychology and neuroscience, in order to understand the motives behind political behaviour.
In this article
- Origins and historical roots: towards academic independence
- Methodological shifts: the behavioural revolution and new institutionalism
- Political science in the twenty-first century: reviews and critical movements
- The role of the political scientist: theory, advice and crisis forecasting
- The development of the discipline after the Second World War
Origins and historical roots: towards academic independence
At its core, political science is a social science that deals with systems of government, the distribution of power, and the analysis of political activities and institutions, as well as the constitutions and laws that regulate them. Thinking about politics is as old as human civilisation, but modern political science only began to take shape as an independent academic field in the second half of the nineteenth century, when it gradually separated from history and political philosophy.
Until the late nineteenth century it was not common to draw a clear line between political philosophy and political science. Earlier studies drew on moral philosophy, political theology and history — fields that focused mainly on normative questions: what ought to be, and what the “ideal state” should look like. Classical political philosophy is known for its deep engagement with Hellenic (Greek) thought and the legacy of the Enlightenment, whereas modern political scientists focused on the consequences of modernity and the structure of the contemporary nation-state, sharing with sociologists analytical terms such as “structure” and “agency”.
The founding period of the discipline saw the creation of dedicated chairs and university departments, and the title “political scientist” came to be used for holders of advanced degrees in the field. The founding of the American Political Science Association (1903) and the launch of the American Political Science Review (1906) marked a turning point in distinguishing the discipline from economics and other social sciences. Earlier still, in 1886, the Political Science Quarterly was launched, and Munroe Smith explicitly defined political science as “the science of the state”. This institutional growth became global after the Second World War with the creation of the International Political Science Association in 1949, with the support of UNESCO.
Methodological shifts: the behavioural revolution and new institutionalism
In the middle of the twentieth century, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, the field went through an intellectual earthquake known as the “behavioural revolution”. This shift moved the academic focus away from purely institutional studies and rigid readings of constitutional texts towards the scientific, quantitative study of how individuals and groups behave within the political system. Major contributions came from thinkers such as Robert Dahl and Philip Converse, along with fruitful collaboration between sociologists and public-opinion researchers.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s the field took another methodological leap, adopting formal deductive modelling and game theory. Researchers — led by the Rochester school under William H. Riker — borrowed mathematical theories and methods from economics to study long-standing political institutions such as the US Congress and to analyse complex behaviour such as voting patterns. Despite this enormous progress, many scholars acknowledged that the search for a comprehensive, unified theory of politics remained modest and uneven.
Political science in the twenty-first century: reviews and critical movements
At the turn of the millennium, in 2000, an intellectual rebellion emerged within the academy, known as the “Perestroika movement” in political science. It was a reaction against what its supporters saw as an excessive “mathematisation” of the discipline. They argued that the field should be enriched by a greater variety of methods and approaches, and that political research should reconnect with real-world problems so that it remains relevant to people outside the academy.
In parallel, evolutionary psychology offered new ways of explaining political behaviour, suggesting that humans developed sophisticated psychological mechanisms for dealing with politics. However, these mechanisms evolved to work within the small groups of our ancestral environments, not within the huge and complex institutions of modern states. According to this approach, that mismatch explains many of the cognitive biases and deep problems of contemporary political practice.
The role of the political scientist: theory, advice and crisis forecasting
Political science centres on the study of how power is distributed, how decisions are made, and the roles of governments and international organisations. Scholars in the field put forward two kinds of argument: positive arguments, which describe reality and offer objective analyses of how systems work, and normative arguments, which recommend policies and set out how things ought to be in order to secure stability, justice and public well-being.
The political scientist’s role is not limited to the lecture hall. Political scientists also work as strategic advisers or policymakers within governments and parties, and think tanks play a major role in drawing on their expertise to analyse current issues and provide frameworks that journalists and voters rely on.
One of the most important practical roles of political science today is its ability to anticipate crises and critical transitions. Researchers study statistical warning signs, such as simultaneous increases in variance and correlation across large populations. These methods have shown their value — for example, in the early diagnosis of the 2014 political crisis in Ukraine, where analyses revealed prolonged social stress and a growing correlation between public fears before the crisis actually broke out. This shows how modern political science can anticipate unrest before it happens.
The development of the discipline after the Second World War
Political science gradually gained its independence and methodological strength, beginning with European recognition through the founding of the École libre des sciences politiques in Paris (1872) and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Although traditional theoretical approaches long dominated in Europe and the Arab world, American inductive and analytical methods brought about a major global shift.
The Second World War, the division of the world into two camps during the Cold War, and the emergence of new international actors were the real starting point that made specialised and fully independent political research a necessity. This gave political science new strategic dimensions and placed it at the forefront of the social sciences concerned with shaping the future of nations.
Key academic references
- Smith, Munroe (1886). “Introduction: The Domain of Political Science”. Political Science Quarterly.
- Bevir, Mark (2022). A History of Political Science. Cambridge University Press.
- Sigelman, Lee (2010). “Terminological Interchange Between Sociology and Political Science”. Social Science Quarterly.
- Rybnikov, S. R.; Rybnikova, N. A.; Portnov, B. A. (2017). “Public fears in Ukrainian society: Are crises predictable?”. Psychology & Developing Societies.
- Hill, Kim Quaile (2012). “In Search of General Theory”. Journal of Politics.
