Political science is a science that studies all aspects of world politics, its cultural, sociological, psychological, institutional, as well as geographical features. But what is politics? The answer to this question can be quite multifaceted, since there is still no exact and clear definition of this concept. Recently, however, it is generally accepted to consider politics as the sphere of activity of the state associated with the interaction of various class, national, social groups in solving the problems of the conquest, retention and development of state power. This is the reality of any civilized state.
Object and subject of political science
Political science takes into consideration all aspects of the world political system, respectively, the object of its interest will be world political reality. But other sciences are also studying this reality in various aspects - philosophy, psychology, sociology, history , etc. What makes it possible to single out political science as a separate branch of scientific knowledge? This is the subject of research. But here, for a long time, political scientists could not come to a consensus and give a clear definition of the subject of this science. Only in 1948, a group of experts from European countries and America identified the problems studied by political science. These include: political history, political institutions and public organizations, party associations and movements, as well as international relations.
The ambiguous view of the object and subject of political science is connected, first of all, with the desire of many Western political scientists to divide science into two branches - applied and theoretical. So, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the American scientist Seymour Lipset singled out political sociology as an independent industry and examined the structure and functioning of state power institutions and various political associations and their interaction with society as the subject of its study. Many scientists, following S. Lipset, proposed identifying political science and political sociology and formulated the subject of political science as follows: a study of how society uses the political institutions that regulate its life and accumulates political ideas for its development.
But, nevertheless, the universal support was received by the point of view that political science is an integral science that includes many aspects of the study of society and, accordingly, the object and subject of political science include several important components. These include: the level of political culture of consciousness in society; political institutions, parties and groups; interstate and interstate political interactions; subjects of political life, namely, an individual, a social group, political leaders and the management elite.
The subject and method of political science
Political science as a combination of different sciences that have separate subjects, methods and approaches in the study of political phenomena of society, is united with them only by an object - political reality. Political science combines and accumulates all the knowledge and results of studies of multifaceted political life obtained by other social sciences. It follows that the subject and object of political science can be defined as the study of the diversity of political relations, the functioning and development of various political institutions in different state systems, the study of the political life of people, ruling parties and their interaction in order to exercise and maintain power.
Of course, the study of all these phenomena occurs using various scientific methods. What is a method? This is a construction of certain techniques and methods for obtaining and achieving scientific knowledge. In modern political science, various research methods are used, both traditional and the latest. The traditional ones should include historical, comparative, institutional methods, the latest ones are expert assessment methods, business games, simulation methods, structuring and mathematical modeling.
The complex and ambiguous view of the object and subject of political science is explained by an extraordinary and multifaceted approach to this branch of scientific knowledge, which consists of a set of independent scientific disciplines that study individual aspects of the political life of society and have their own subject and research methodology.