Why has the idea of a science of politics been so attractive?

The exploration of politics in science fiction is arguably older than the identification of the genre. One of the earliest works of modern science fiction, H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine, is an extrapolation of the class structure of the United Kingdom of his time, an extreme form of Social Darwinism; during tens of thousands of years, human beings have evolved into two different species based on their social class.

The idea that the study of politics should be ‘scientific’ has excited controversy for centuries. What is at stake is the nature of our political knowledge, but the content of the argument has varied enormously. For example, 1741 when Hume published his essay, ‘That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science’, his concerns were very different from those of people who have sought to reduce politics to a science in the twentieth century. Although concerned to some degree to imitate the paradigm of Newtonian physics, Hume's main objective was to show that some constitutions necessarily worked better than others and that politics was not just a question of personalities. Thus one of his main targets was the famous couplet in Alexander Pope's Essay on Man: ‘For forms of government let fools contest, | Whate'er is best administer'd is best.’

7. Is it possible to study politics objectively and without bias? Much of political science is elusive and subjective. People tend to feel that their position on an issue is 'right' while the opposing side is 'wrong.' Much of one's perspectives, however, result from flawed analysis such as pre-conceived biases, i.e. a wealthy white male will statistically be less inclined to agree with affirmative action than an African American, or a school teacher will more likely support a budget increase for teachers at the expense of say, public park restoration, the latter of which has a less direct affect on their personal well-being. Politics is dealing with people and people use filters. So now you have filters dealing with filters. Liberal filters, conservative filters, ethical filters, ego filters etc. etc. I can see no way that a person driven thing like politics, religion, or law could ever be truly objective for a total measure of objective. It might be objective for a given measure of objectivity depending on the filters we use to define objective.

8. Henry David Thoreau said «That government is best which governs not at all». Explain what he meant. The quotation “That government is best which governs least” is often attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but without any specific source. No source is given because, as noted by Jefferson scholars and books like Not So!: Popular Myths About America From Columbus to Clinton, there is no record that Jefferson ever said it. Nor did Thomas Paine, another “Founding Father” who is sometimes wrongly credited with the quote.Henry David Thoreau did use the line in “Civil Disobedience” (originally titled “Resistance to Civil Government”) and its appearance in that famous essay probably popularized the saying in its best known form. However, Thoreau seemed to be making it clear that he was citing an existing motto. "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.
Essentially Thoreau is saying that people are better off when they are left to themselves, without the government's meddling (which is most of what government does). But, he qualifies the statement, it takes a particular sort of person to be able to live in such a society (without it breaking up into hunter-gather bands).

9. Does Aristotle’s system of political classification have any relevance to the modern world? When we trace the liberal democratic system back to its origin, we can see how the modern day liberal democratic model has been tweaked and improved from the classical model in which was introduced by Aristotle. He observed over 150 Greek city states to examine how they ran their political and economic affairs, categorizing them to the questions ‘Who rules?’ and ‘who benefits?’ From his studies, Aristotle classified six forms of political constitution: DOTMAP DEMOCRACY, OLIGARCHY, TYRANNY, MONARCHY, ARISTOCRACY AND POLITY.
Aristotle’s idea of democracy varies to the modern day, as we now see democracy as a government by the people in the interest of all. However there are two main aspects of Aristotle’s classification of democracy in which are still relevant to the modern day liberal democratic system and these are EQUALITY AND FREEDOM. These principles are reflected on all citizens (the people) being equal before the law and having equal access to power. In a representative democracy, every vote has equal weight and no restrictions can be applied to any person wanting to become a representative. The modern day liberal democratic system allows the people to vote who they would like to represent them and make decisions on their behalf. This is classed as a representative democracy in which the political office is secured through an election process.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-13