Hyrje ne Shkencat Politike nga Andrew Heywood

Kjo eshte nje prezantim i shkurte te bazave te shkencave politike, marre nga libri:
Andrew Heywood:POLITICS. 2nd edition, Palgrave, 2002

CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS POLITICS?
Politics, in its broadest sense, as the activity through which people make, preserve and amend the general rules under which they live (pp. 4-5).
The traditional view of politics as 'what concerns the state', restricting the study of politics to a focus on the personnel and machinery of government (pp. 5-7).
Politics associated more broadly with 'public' life as opposed to 'private' life (pp. 7-9).
Politics conceived as a particular means of resolving conflict: that is, by compromise, conciliation and negotiation (pp. 9-10).
The radical definition of politics as the production, distribution and use of resources in the course of social existence, implying that politics is about power and stems from the unequal distribution of resources (pp. 10-2).
The philosophical tradition of political analysis as a preoccupation with essentially ethical or normative questions about how society 'should' be organised (pp. 13-4).
The empirical tradition of political analysis as the attempt to describe or explain political processes, usually by reference to institutional structures (p. 14).
The scientific tradition of political analysis as the attempt to disclose political knowledge through the application of scientific method, as in the case of behaviouralism (pp. 14-5)
Recent developments in the study of politics have included the growth of rational-choice theory, feminism, 'new' institutionalism, green politics, critical theory and postmodernism (pp. 15-7).
Difficulties in construction a science of politics, including the problem of deriving data from human behaviour, the existing of hidden values, and the myth of neutrality in the social sciences (pp. 17-8).
The role of concepts, models and theories in imposing meaning on political information or data, and the problems and pitfalls of concepts and theories (pp. 18-21).
CHAPTER 2: GOVERNMENTS, SYSTEMS AND REGIMES
Government, in its broadest sense, as the mechanism through which ordered rule is maintained, its central features being the ability to make and enforce collective decisions (p. 26).
The benefit of classifying political systems as an essential aid to the understanding of politics in government, and as a means of evaluating the adequacy of effectiveness of institutional structures (pp. 26-7).
The classical typology devised by Aristotle, based on the answers to two questions: 'Who rules?' (one person, the few or the many), and 'Who benefits from rule?' (the rulers or all citizens) (pp. 27-9).
The 'three worlds typology' as the attempt to distinguish between a capitalist 'first world', a communist 'second world' and a developing 'third world'; a system of classification that has been increasingly difficult to sustain since the 1970s (pp. 29-30).
The main approaches to regime classification as the constitutional-institutional approach, the structural-functional approach and the economic-ideological approach (pp. 30-2).
Western polyarchies as regimes in which there is, first, a relatively high tolerance of opposition, sufficient at least to prevent arbitrary government, and second, a reliable level of popular responsiveness based on regular, fair and competitive elections (pp. 32-4).
New democracies as regimes in which the process of democratic consolidation is incomplete, as opposed to semi-democracies in which democratic and authoritarian features operate in tandem (pp. 34-6).
East Asian regimes as ones characterised by the predominance of economic rather than political goals, broad support for 'strong' government, respect for leaders and an overriding emphasis on community and social cohesion (pp. 36-7).
Islamic regimes as ones constructed or reconstructed on Islamic lines, either fundamentalist or pluralist in orientation (pp. 37-8).
Military regimes as ones that survive through the exercise, above all, of military power and systematic repression (pp. 38-9).