PS 101 1st Edition Lecture 1Outline of Current Lecture I. The Basics of PoliticsII. What is Political SciencesIII. Political Science Today-Division-What it is and is notIV. Political Science Professors-Careers Current LectureI. What is Politics?A. Option 1:1. Politics is about the study of distribution; how resources are delivered to different sectors of society. Political scientists study “how the pie is divided”.2. Economics is about the study of efficiency, so “how big is the pie?”3. It is also defined as “Who gets what, when, and how?” -Harold Lasswell, a 1940s political scientist.B. Option 2:1. Politics is about power.2. For some political scientists, politics is the study of power. i. The ability of Actor A to get Actor B to take a certain action that Actor B would not have taken. 3. Coercion, persuasion, and hierarchy all play a major role in political power.C. Option 3:These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.1. Politics is about how individuals organize themselves to overcome collective dilemmas. 2. There are three types of collective dilemmas: i. Cooperationii. Coordinationiii. Conflict (no agreement)II. What is Political Science?A. Political Science is defined as “A set of techniques, concepts, and approaches, whose objective is to increase the clarity and accuracy of our understandings of political phenomena”.1. It is called a “science” because particular methods are used. There are theories, hypotheses are made, and data is collected. B. Major goals of Political Science1. Explanation, prediction, and analysis of political phenomena.2. Cumulation of knowledge about how political systems work. 3. Generation of new and interesting questions.III. Political Science TodayA. Real- world politics points to interesting questions and problems for study.B. It serves as a source for data.C. It keeps us honest- We have to check if our theories hold in the realworld.D. Four Main Divisions of Politics:1. American politics2. Comparative politics3. International relations4. Political theoryE. Key Terms:1. Normative: ideal, should2. Positive: Describes how things are3. Empirical: Related to dataF. Political science is not a professional degree related to skills for campaigning or writing legislation; an account of past history or currentevents; nor is is punditry involving the “goodness” or “badness” of current policies, parties, leaders.IV. What Political Science Professors DoA. Research1. They write books and scholarly articles. B. Teaching1. They teach undergraduate and graduate students.C. Service1. They serve on various national, disciplinary, university, and department committees.D. Political scientists begin as Assistant Professors for 6-9 years, which is a probationary period before moving up to Associate Professor where they are tenured (cannot be fired unless thereis a dereliction of duty), until eventually becoming a Professor, which is the highest rank. E. With a degree, political science professors can teach, work in government or private sectors, go to law school, get their Master’s in Public Policy, get their MBA, or go to graduate school to train to become an
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