What is Government?
While we have proudly waved the banner of Department of Government since our founding in 1910, the discipline we represent at Harvard is known in most universities as political science. Speaking most generally, political science is the organized study of political processes, institutions, and ideas. It is large in scale and internally as pluralistic as any part of the social sciences. Political science is a welcoming discipline, a crossroads where other fields meet and bring us substantive puzzles, theories, methods, and data.
These words apply especially well to our local community. In a pluralistic discipline, the Harvard Government Department is more pluralistic than almost any peer department. This diversity is ingrained in our departmental culture and is one of our major attractions to graduate and undergraduate students and to the faculty we wish to recruit and nurture.
— Timothy J. Colton
Morris and Anna Feldberg Professor of Government and Russian Studies, Department of Government
What are the social sciences?
What is the “science” in political science? By referring to itself as a science, political science and the social sciences broadly claim to systematically produce knowledge about human behavior and human relationships, in the same way that disciplines in the natural sciences like biology or chemistry study the natural world.
Both natural scientists and social scientists rely on:
Theories that provide explanations about how the world works
Hypotheses about what we should observe or expect under certain conditions
Evidence to test whether hypotheses are born out or not
Falsifying hypotheses based on that evidence.
How is political science organized?
Political science divides itself into four subfields: international relations, comparative politics, American politics, and political theory. Each subfield has developed its own body of research, paradigms, methodological inclinations, and community of scholars.
At the same time, these subfield divisions aren’t hard boundaries. Research in political science often explores questions at the intersection of multiple subfields, drawing insights from across different research agendas and traditions.
“Politics is who gets what, when, and how.”
- Harold Laswell, American political scientist
American Politics
American politics (AP) focuses on the contemporary and historical politics of the United States, with attention to the institutions and topics that explain the country’s political and social development. Americanists ask questions like how racial hierarchies shaped the evolution of the United States’ governing institutions, how the structure of federal and state governments influence the policymaking process, and how partisanship shapes voters’ decisions at the ballot box.
International Relations
International relations (IR) considers the relationship between states or between states and non-state actors on the global stage. IR draws on theory and empirical evidence to study questions about the causes of war between states, when and why states cooperate, and the role of international organization in shaping states behavior.
Comparative Politics
Comparative politics (CP) examines the politics within countries other than the United States to identify how differences in states’ institutions, history, and culture shape their political dynamics. Comparativists ask questions like: why do some democracies fail? Why are some countries rich and others poor? Why are some states strong and capable where others are weak and struggle to implement basic policies? Why do some countries enact more generous social welfare policies than others?
Political Theory
Political theory (PT) investigates the concepts used to think about and evaluate politics. Theorists combine logical rigor and empirical, historical, and textual evidence to ask questions about the meaning and roots of ideas like democracy, justice, property, and representation: what does it mean to be a political equal? Where do constitutional values come from? What kinds of political institutions can best realize our democratic principles?
What else do political scientists study?
The four subfields are the broadest way that we organize our discipline. As you explore political science, you will find even more scholarly communities, research agendas, and specializations. Many of these are eclectic and inter-disciplinary. You can explore some of them below.
* hover over a community to learn more
Methods is the study of how we learn about the political world. Methodologists seek to develop new ways of observing political behavior and relationships, both qualitative and quantitative. Methods can involve statistical analysis, experimental design, surveys, archival research, interviews, and other modes of collecting data.
Because scholars of comparative politics often specialize in particular countries or regions, they will form communities with like-minded scholars of that region from neighbor disciplines like sociology, history, and economics. At Harvard, you can find communities of these “area experts” at centers like the Center for European Studies, The Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, or the Yenching Institute.
Public policy and public administration is concerned with the nitty-gritty of day-to-day governance. Public policy scholars are political scientists, sociologists, and economists. They tend to focus less on abstract theory and more on the practice of governance.
Sitting at the intersection of political science and social psychology, scholars of political behavior are interested in individual human beliefs, biases, and actions.
This community spans both international relations and comparative politics, and focuses on the study of conflict, both within and across states.
Political economy is a broad subdiscipline that focuses on how political institutions and economic systems influence one another. Many political economists have borrowed tools and approaches from economics, like formal modeling and the rational-choice paradigm.