Foundations of Political Science and International Relations

📋 Course Outline

1. Political Science Foundations
2. Normative vs Empirical
3. Political Subfields
4. International Relations
5. Political Economy
6. Theory Components
7. Actors and Interests
8. Interactions and Games
9. Institutions and Rules
10. Domestic vs International

📖 1. Political Science Foundations

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Politics: The process through which public values are debated, political actors compete for power, and policy decisions are made. It answers "who gets what, when, how" (Lasswell, 1936).
• Policy: The outcome of political processes, including laws, regulations, and decisions that influence society.
• Normative Theory: A branch of political science concerned with how things should work, focusing on values, ethics, and ideal principles (e.g., justice, fairness).
• Objective (Empirical) Theory: Focuses on how things actually work, based on facts, observations, and data to explain political phenomena.
• Subfields of Political Science: Specialized areas such as Political Theory (normative questions), American Politics (U.S. processes), Comparative Politics (cross-country comparisons), and International Relations (interstate and global interactions).
• International Political Economy (IPE): The study of how political and economic processes influence each other at the international level, using shared methodologies from economics and political science.

📝 Essential Points