Political Science

Conservatism is a modern way of thinking that favors historical continuity and the establishment, proposes the maintenance of traditional institutions, and opposes changes in the status quo ante. It has become a major political force, exerted strong social impact, and disseminated reactionary values. Therefore, it can take the form of an ideology, a political organization, or a cultural movement.

In understanding and assessing [a counterfactual] statement, we are asked to consider how the world would have been if the antecedent condition had obtained.

Dialecticians take a relational view of the social world. Their focus is not on any one aspect of that world in isolation, but rather on the relationships among and between various elements, as well as on the totality of social relations and its relationship to those components.

In philosophy, epistemology refers to a Theory of knowledge, a theory of how human beings come to have knowledge of the world around them—of how we know what we know. Epistemology provides a philosophical grounding for establishing what kinds of knowledge are possible and for deciding how knowledge can be judged as being both adequate and legitimate. I

Globalization is used to describe the increasingly transnational character of economic transactions.

Governance expresses a widespread belief that the state increasingly depends on other organizations to secure its intentions, deliver its policies, and establish a pattern of rule.

"The concept of human security represents a departure from orthodox neorealist security studies because it places human beings, rather than solely states, at the center of international and national security policies. The human security paradigm means that human beings and their complex social and economic interaction are given policy primacy with or over states."

Historical, or classical liberalism, has been used to describe both a political and an economic school of thought. Classical liberalism was based on the assumption that human beings are rational, granting them the right to make decisions for themselves. Classical liberals also believed that government had a responsibility to provide public works and services that individuals could not provide for themselves. modern liberals, embodied chiefly in the Democratic party, have extended the emphasis on individuals to encompass a strong sense of social justice, a demand for social reforms, and a belief that human beings have a right to basic human dignity.

Libertarians would keep the state as small as possible, concerned with defense and law enforcement. Only anarchists would suggest doing away with the state altogether. While conventional political analysis of ideologies considers communism and fascism to be at opposite ends, libertarians consider them to be two heads of the same totalitarian monster.

[T]he culture of modernity is characterized by a growing belief in the power of reason, rationality, and truth as well as a faith in the ability of science and technology to harness the powers of humans and nature for the betterment of society.

"Why do nations matter, morally speaking, if indeed they do?"

"The nation-state is the ideological belief that the population of one state consists entirely of the members of one national group."

Neoliberalism is a policy paradigm that emphasizes the need for free market competition. It is both an ideology (that is, an organized set of ideas) and a practice (that is, a set of policy prescriptions).

"In its most basic form, political science can be defined as the study of both the institutions that form states and governments, and the political processes that animate them."

In writing about this historical moment, the [historian] understands that there is no privileged position of absolute spectator, for how can the postmodern self write about itself when the very postmodern stuff it is made of conditions what it says, sees, feels, and hears? Of course, any hint of objectivity predicated on the privileged position of the absolute spectator must be relinquished. As an observer of the postmodern scene, I must recognize that I am grafted into every action and situation I write about.

argued that researchers are always part of the social world they study; they can never step above it in order to gain an Olympian perspective or move outside it to get a “view from nowhere.” It is taken to follow from this that they should continually reflect on their own role in the research process and on the wider context in which it occurs.

Sovereignty regulates relations between the rulers and the ruled, as well as relations between sovereign entities in the international arena.

[Teleology] presuppose in general that a final state of affairs in future explains or predetermines the movement from previous states to final ones.