Apologia pro Politica Scientia Prečítať

DEFENSE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Ján Koper

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Politické vedy, Volume 20, Number 1/2017, pages 11-33

Odporúčaná forma citácie článku / Recommended form for quotation of the article:

KOPER, J. 2017. Apologia pro Politica Scientia.In Politické vedy. [online]. Roč. 20, č. 1, 2017. ISSN 1335–2741, s. 11-33. Dostupné na internete: <http://www.politickevedy.fpvmv.umb.sk/archiv-vydani/2017/1-2017/jan-koper.html>.

ABSTRACT

Political science as a separate scientific discipline is a relatively young science, which gradually separated from other social sciences. Nevertheless, part of the political elite and scholars from the natural sciences often do not recognize the results achieved by political science and they denigrate it in the eyes of other experts as well as in the eyes of the public. By this article, the author aims to defend the existence of political science as an autonomous scientific discipline. By means of statistical comparisons and data analysis, he confronts several fault perceptions such as the excessive amount of political scientists and often discussed inability of students of political science to prove competence in the praxis. He underlines that political science has its own specific object of research and it reveals the general rules of functioning of the society. Yet, on the other hand, he admits that politics is a specific and very dynamic area with particularities that may hinder the development of political research and the institutionalization of the political science as a science. After pointing out these specificities he concludes that it is the right time to re-initiate the association to support this discipline and he suggests that political scientists are not enemies of the political establishment, but rather they seek to be its partners.

Key words: political science, politicians and political science, methods of political science, concepts of political science, patterns of political science, particularities of political science