Outline of political science
(Redirected from Wikipedia:Political science basic topics)
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to politics and political science:
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Politics – the exercise of power; process by which groups of people make collective decisions. Politics is the art or science of running governmental or state affairs (including behavior within civil governments), institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the corporate, academic, and religious segments of society.
Political science – the field concerning the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior.
Fields of study of political science
[edit]- Comparative politics
- Development studies
- Geopolitics and political geography
- Area studies
- Globalization studies
- Gender and politics
- Institutional theory
- International relations
- Nationalism studies
- Political behavior
- Political economy
- Political fiction
- Political research methodology
- Political sociology
- Political theory and philosophy
- Positive political theory
- Postcolonialism
- Psephology – study of elections
- Policy analysis and Policy studies
- Strategic studies
Related disciplines
[edit]Political theory
[edit]- Anarchist schools of thought hold that all forms of hierarchy and authority are illegitimate.
- Social anarchism views individual freedom as interrelated with mutual aid.[1]
- Individualist anarchism
- Democratic theory
- Athenian democracy a form of Greek democracy in which free male citizens had a direct vote on all government actions.
- Republicanism a strain of political thought which was common among the city-states of the Italian Renaissance, such as the Republic of Venice.
- Representative democracy
- Direct democracy
- Radical democracy
- International relations theory
- Majoritarianism
- Marxist schools of thought
- Metapolitics
- Peace and conflict studies
- Political geography
- Political symbolism
- Postcolonialism
- Theories of state
Decision-making
[edit]
- Electoral systems
- Plurality voting allows each voter to vote for a single candidate, with the candidate with most votes being the winner. It is often combined with single-member districts, resulting in a majoritarian democracy.
- Proportional representation ensures that proportions of representation allocated in the elected body reflect their proportions of support among the electorate.[2] Often combined with multi-member districts to produce consensus democracy.
- Mixed electoral systems
- Suffrage
- Voting
- Game theory
- Political campaign
- Political communications
- Political qualifications
Political institutions
[edit]
Branches of government
[edit]The separation of powers is typically set in the constitution or basic law in order to achieve checks and balances within government. The typical model has three branches, and is referred to as the trias politica.
- Legislature, deliberates and passes laws.
- Executive, executes laws.
- Head of state, formal, often symbolic, leader of state. Sometimes has veto power over proposed legislation.
- Head of government, the person(s) in charge of day-to-day affairs of the state. Usually heads a cabinet, a Council of Ministers or a Council of State.
- Judiciary, often involved in politics through judicial review.
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Political behavior
[edit]- Political culture
- Civic political culture
- Parochial political culture
- Patrimonialism, a political culture which sees no difference between personal and political power.
- Peace and conflict studies
- Political psychology
Political dysfunction
[edit]Types of polities and forms of government
[edit]By level of social organisation
[edit]- Traditional authority, political society which has not gone through state formation.
- Band society
- Big man
- Chiefdom
- Empire (before New Imperialism).
- Local government
- Unitary state (Unitarism)
- Federalism
- Regional integration
- Global governance
By formal power structure
[edit]By source of power
[edit]- Autocracy, the source of power is the leader.
- Democracy, the source of power are the people through popular sovereignty.
- Ethnocracy, the source of power is ethnicity.
- Meritocracy, the source of power is talent.
- Noocracy, talent is measured by wisdom.
- Technocracy, talent is measured by expertise.
- Stratocracy, the source of power is the military.
- Theocracy, the source of power is God(s).
- Oligarchy, the source of power is the elite.
- Aristocracy, the elite are hereditary.
- Gerontocracy, the elite are the elderly.
- Plutocracy, the source of power is wealth.
Political ideologies and philosophies
[edit]- Authoritarianism
- Left-wing politics, usually focused on increasing egalitarianism.
- Centrism, usually defined by highly pragmatic politics.
- Liberalism, defined by high valuing of liberty.
- Right-libertarianism, often defined as high valuation of private property
- Right-wing politics, often defined by opposition to social change, and a veneration of tradition.
- Centre-right politics
- Conservatism
- Far-right politics, political ideas which are described as reactionary, ultranationalist, chauvinistic, xenophobic or racist.[3]
- Identity politics, political ideologies concerned with the interests of the members of a specific group.
Governments of the world
[edit]
Political issues and policies
[edit]- Animal rights
- Civil and political rights, usually related to topics of negative liberty.
- Economic, social and cultural rights, usually cover issues of positive liberty.
- LGBT rights
- Minority rights
- Women's rights
Foreign and security policy
[edit]Politics by continent
[edit]Foreign relations by continents
[edit]Political parties by continent
[edit]History of politics
[edit]Political scholars
[edit]Influential literature
[edit]- The Art of War – by Sun Tsu (c. 544–496 BC)
- History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (c. 460 – c. 400 BC)
- The Republic and Laws – by Plato (427–347 BC)
- The Politics and Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle (384–322 BC)
- Arthashastra – Chāṇakya[4] (c. 350–283 BC)
- Meditations – Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161–180 CE
- The Prince – by Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527)
- The Book of Five Rings – Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584––1645)
- Leviathan – Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)
- The Wealth of Nations – by Adam Smith (1723–1790)
- On War – by Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831)
- The Communist Manifesto – by Karl Marx (1818–1883)
See also
[edit]- Anthropology
- Constitutional economics
- Debate
- Food politics
- Government simulation game
- Music and politics
- Policy
- Rule According to Higher Law
- Office politics
- Official statistics
- Organizational politics
- Political activism
- Political corruption
- Political criticism
- Political economy
- Political fiction (list)
- Political movement
- Political party (list by country)
- Political power
- Political psychology
- Political spectrum
- Theories of Political Behavior
Further reading
[edit]- Roskin, M.; Cord, R. L.; Medeiros, J. A.; Jones, W. S. (2007). Political Science: An Introduction. 10th ed. New York: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-242575-9 (10). ISBN 978-0-13-242575-9 (13).
- Tausch, A.; Prager, F. (1993). Towards a Socio-Liberal Theory of World Development. Basingstoke: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin's Press.
- Oxford Handbooks of Political Science – ten-volume set covering the political science topics political methodology, public policy, political theory, political economy, comparative politics, contextual political analysis, international relations, Law and Politics, political behavior, and political institutions. The general editor of the series is Robert E. Goodin.[5][6]
References
[edit]- ^ Suissa, Judith (2001). "Anarchism, Utopias and Philosophy of Education". Journal of Philosophy of Education 35 (4). pp. 627–646. doi:10.1111/1467-9752.00249.
- ^ Mill, John Stuart (1861). "Chapter VII, Of True and False Democracy; Representation of All, and Representation of the Majority only". Considerations on Representative Government. London: Parker, Son, & Bourn.
- ^ Carlisle, Rodney P., ed., The Encyclopedia of Politics: The Left and the Right, Volume 2: The Right (Thousand Oaks, California, United States; London, England; New Delhi, India: Sage Publications, 2005) p. 693.
- ^ Mabbett 1964 "References to the work in other Sanskrit literature attribute it variously to Viṣṇugupta, Cāṇakya and Kauṭilya. The same individual is meant in each case. The Pańcatantra explicitly identifies Chanakya with Viṣṇugupta."
- ^ "Oxford Handbook of Political Theory". Oxford University Press. 27 Aug 2006. ISBN 9780199270033. Archived from the original on Mar 5, 2016.
- ^ Walsh, Mary (1 May 2008). "The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory". Contemporary Political Theory. 7 (2): 232–234. doi:10.1057/cpt.2008.2.
External links
[edit]
Political science at Wikipedia's sister projects
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Resources from Wikiversity
- American Political Science Association
- European Consortium for Political Research
- International Political Science Association
- Political Studies Association of the UK
- PROL: Political Science Research Online (prepublished research)[dead link]
- Truman State University, "Political Science Research Design Handbook"
- "A New Nation Votes - American Election Returns, 1787 - 1825". American Antiquarian Society -- Election Records Project. 13 November 2006. Archived from the original on Dec 8, 2006.
- "POLITICAL Domain Links IV". Hodges' Health Career Model. Archived from the original on Oct 20, 2014.