Is “Political Science” a Science?

There have been debates in regards to whether political science is a science or an

art. It is an amalgamation of both science and art. Art is the study primarily
concerned with human creativity and social life as contrasted with technical
subjects and science is an organised pursuit of knowledge. Seeing politics
scientifically involves looking at it in a completely different perspective. Political
science requires us to omit individual opinions and regard politics as a process,
analogous as to what happens in nature.

According to Giovanni Sartori: political science is based on two variables: the state
of the organisation of knowledge and the degree of structural differentiation
within the framework of human collectivities (Sartori 1973). To simply put it in
very few words, political science is the study of politics in all aspects of life.
However, separating and clarifying the two words up i.e. politics and science, we
too can derive different definitions from them.

Politics derives from the Greek word ‘polis’ which means city-state. In a broader
sense, it is the activity through which people make, preserve and amend the
general rules under which they live. It involves the principles related to a sphere
of public life or activities especially when concerned with power and status.
There are many views toward the view of politics: as the art of government,
public affairs, resolution of conflicts and power.

Science is both a body of knowledge and the process for building that knowledge
in a systematic and organised manner. Firstly, within the term Science, one could
expand it further by stating that there are two main scientific disciplines: social
sciences, which studies human behaviour and societies and natural sciences
which deals with the physical world and natural phenomena. These two
branches are empirical sciences: the knowledge obtained from these fields must
be capable of tested for its validity.
With the definitions in mind, based on Sartori’s first variable, political science is
a social science. The science in this is to attempt to understand politics as a
mechanism just as you would if you were conducting a typical science
experiment. A key part of approaching politics scientifically is thinking of the
political world in terms of models whereby the concepts become variables linked
together by theories. Political scientists have to develop and test theories using a
methodical approach.

Natural scientists may disagree with political scientists on how the study of
politics involves scientific methods. Some natural scientists think political
science is not because the decision-making processes involved in that discipline
are based on value judgements and biasness. The function of science is to
produce unbiased generalisations and observations under stated conditions and
defined variables. Variables in political science may not be able to be quantified
unlike measurements such as weight, volume or temperature in scientific
experiments. It uses more qualitative data, which describes the attributes or
properties that an object possesses. The number of variables to take into account
in politics is enormous. Unlike natural scientists, political scientists have no
control in some conditions within an environment because politics is based on
human nature. Humans are volatile because they draw onto their past mistakes
and experiences. With that, political scientist would have a hard time to
accurately predict outcomes and result. Thus it is not considered a science seeing
that statements made by them do not have the similar universal validity as
natural scientists.

Instead of posing the question above, a better way of putting it forward would
be: to what extent political science can claim to be science? Political science is a
form of social science