Is it correct to claim that the study of politics constitutes a Essay

Is it correct to claim that the study of politics constitutes a science Discuss with reference to case study research - Essay Example d the various studies concerning man and his multifarious activities like philosophy, economics, natural sciences, history, psychology and of course politics. The Renaissance saw the enquiring minds of Europe and no doubt earlier, where advanced cultures existed (pre-renaissance), delving into studies in various disciplines that were analysed and documented, until the latter half of the nineteenth century and the dawn of the twentieth century saw the thrust towards making studies of most disciplines empirical, meaning that information had to be gained by experience, observation or experiment2. Studies conducted had to follow certain set criteria and measurements to be valid. In the modern state, for proper planning, such was the demand. Many North American political scientists, notably Jon R Bond, believe that a ‘hard science of political behaviour’ is possible and someone would come along and do for political science what Newton has done for physics3. In an essay on this subject by James W. Skillen, he quotes Bond as saying that, ‘the beginning of scientific enquiry is the fact/value dichotomy’ and that ‘the core goal of scientific methods is hypothesis testing and theory building that would yield quantifiable results’4. Indeed, one cannot dispute the fact that without such empirical studies, in terms of politics, economics, sociology and natural sciences amongst others, that planning commissions of various authorities worldwide would have been successful in the implementation of their programmes. Much of the developed and developin g world relies on these studies to implement development programmes with a view to pre-empting failure. Statistics, objective data, all factual and tangible rule the day. However, the question of how accurate we are, when the human element is involved is a question for debate. Here is a discipline that is dependent on so many vagaries of man. Kenneth Minogue, in his book Politics, aptly encapsulates this when he

The Archaic Electoral College for Presidential Elections Research Paper

The Archaic Electoral College for Presidential Elections - Research Paper Example Firstly, it is important to describe how the Electoral College method currently works. Every four years, in this indirect election method, U.S. citizens vote for Electors in their respective states who, in turn, vote for a Presidential candidate. With some exceptions, when a party receives a majority in a particular state, Electors from that party are deemed to have won the state. There are a total of 538 electors in the Electoral College system. When a party wins enough states to reach a count of at least 270 electors, the Presidential nominee from that party wins the election. So, a President wins the election by an aggregate of statewide electors rather than the total number of nationwide votes. The number of Electors in each state is equal to the total number of Senators and U.S. Representatives in it (â€Å"How the Electoral College Functions† 10). Since the number of U.S. Representatives is based on population, more populous states have more electors. The electors only t ake part in this one-time vote and are not responsible for any future legislative work. They are appointees of participating political parties and typically always vote in favour of their party’s respective candidate. Historically, on four occasions the winning president did not receive the popular vote with the latest being the 2000 elections (â€Å"How the Electoral College Functions† 17) when Al Gore lost to George W. Bush by a slim margin of Electoral College votes despite receiving a higher nationwide popular vote. Bush won 271 Electoral College votes, with a margin of only 1 vote above the minimum required.