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An Introduction to Political Science and Foreign Policies

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The word politics comes from the Greek word ‘polis’ which means city or city-state. Politics is known as ‘what concern the polis’ or ‘what concern the city-state’. Politics is also defined as an art of governing people and state. Art here refers to knowledge and skill. So, politics is a knowledge and skill of how to organize, govern and rule the society and state. There are some Western and Muslim political thinkers that define politics. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, defined politics in his book "The Nicomachean Ethics," as the most authoritative and master art. He said that politics is most authoritative because knowledge in politics been used to guides leaders and politicians on how to organize and govern the society and state, how to provide conducive environment for citizens to live, how to make sure society is stable and economy is grow and lastly how to protect the state. Besides the Western political thinker, there are some Muslim political thinkers such as al-Ghazali and al-Mawardi that define politics. Al-Ghazali said in his book Ihya Ulum al-Din that politics is the highest and most important craft among other knowledge. This is because politics is used to unify, govern and guide people and society. Al-Mawardi said in his book Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyyah wal-Wilayah al-Diniyyah as the political leaders or imamah must play the prophetic function in politics and also in religious matters. Political science can be defined as the scientific or systematic study of politics. There are some definitions of political science that derive from scholars like Robert Dahl, David Easton and Harold Lasswell. Robert Dahl defines political science as the study of any persistent pattern of human relationship which involves, to a significant extent power, rule and authority. In simple word, he stressed on power relationships in society. Another scholars that is David Easton said that political science is the study of how government uses its power to allocate, distribute, and manage the needs and demands of the society and how government make policy for the public. Lastly, Harold Lasswell said that the study of politics consist of three basic questions, that are who, what and when, which mean who govern, what are the purposes and when it happens. There are four specializations in political science, first is International Relations, second is Public Administration, third is Political Theory and Philosophy and lastly Comparative Politics. International relations is basically the study of relations between and among state and international political affairs. For example like insurgency in Southern Philippines and Malaysia’s water issues with Singapore. There are several themes that had been discussed under international relations like, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, International Organization, War and Conflict, International Law and Law of the Sea, Terrorism and International Trade. Public Administration is the study of management and administration of public offices. Public administration’s purpose is to find the best way to manage the government bureaucratic system. The studies under Public Administration consist of the theory of organization especially the one that had been introduced by Max Weber, leadership theory on how to lead an organization, human resource, training of personnel, policy-making on how to devise and carry out policies for the public, government’s revenue, budget and expenditure, decision-making and efficiency in government service. Political theory means ‘the theory of politics’. Political theory involves the question "how certain political ideas will influence the nature of political system, behavior and society." For example, what will happen if we practice democracy? The answer is, The theory of democracy posits that if democracy is implemented and practiced, country will be stable in term of politics and social, it will not involve in war, people will have freedom, right of expression, choosing leaders that they want, many parties will take part, election is fair and free and etc. The scope of political theory and philosophy are consists of three areas of studies, political philosophy, political thought and political ideology. All these three fields basically discuss about idea but from different angles. Political Theory also discuss about Western and Islamic political thinkers. Lastly is Comparative Politics. In Political Comparative they compare two or more political objects such as political system, political party, political culture and foreign policy. The reason they make that comparison is to find the similarities and the differences between two political objects. For example, what are the similarities and differences between political system in Malaysia and Indonesia? All the comparison can be made by using ‘synchronic comparison’ and "diachronic comparison." Comparative Politics is very useful in order to find the best practice or the best political

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