Why study Political Science?
Political Science is the study of relations between people and institutions as well as among institutions. It differentiates itself from disciplines such as Sociology or Anthropology which focus primarily on the relations among people in society or Psychology that investigates the individual.
It is a social science which contributes and, at the same time, borrows ideas from other disciplines such as Economics, Sociology, Social Psychology, and History.
In studying these relations, political scientists focus on the concept of power/power relations and how this power is used to design, shape or control policies. Examples of policies that we study are: welfare policies, environmental policies, labor, health, etc. So, we are concerned about issues such as poverty, environmental sustainability, employment, health and social care, etc. In this regard, we often analyze the relations between public, private and nongovernmental sectors in our societies. Therefore, we explore how these sectors work together and how their behaviors affect the formulation of new policies.
Political science also investigates the power relations among countries, what is usually known as international relations. Included in this sub-field are the diplomatic relations between governments, for example, China-Japan; or North and South Korea; or Russia and the USA to mention a few.
Another aspect that Political Science investigates is the overall structures of government within countries and in doing so it compares their party systems, electoral systems, forms of governments such as democratic versus authoritarian or totalitarian, and we do this often in a historical perspective by referring to political thinkers of the past and the ideologies those inspired with their writings. Political Science also focuses on understanding people's electoral behaviors. For example, one of our concerns is to understand why so many young people are not interested in voting for politicians around the globe? What are the facts behind such political apathy, and where will this change in political behavior bring our societies to? If you wish to change the world for the better by working on pressing social and political issues, believe that the system as it is, it is no longer sustainable, wish to pursue a career as lawyer, journalist, political analyst, public official, social worker, care worker, community organizer, politician or diplomat, and wish to be equipped with high level written and communication skills as well as critical and problem-solving skills and the empathic ability to interact effectively with other people in society, then this is the major for you.