State centered and power centered political science; A...

The main objective of writing this essay is to compare and contrast politics which are state centered and politics with are power centered. What is politics? According to Johari (2008) on this important question the view of the Liberals and those of the Marxists are poles apart. While the former take the study of politics as a study of state government and power, that is an instrument of coercion, the latter take politics as a study of power (political, economical and ideological) alone. It is quite difficult to get an accurate definition of politics, because many scholars (Marxists and liberals) have defined politics in a way that has fitted in the society that are living in. However political science can be classified into two†¦show more content†¦However, this very centralization of power, that is, exercising power is restricted to the state only becomes a demerit for this type of political science in the sense that it is biased. Most of society suffers because of uneven distribution of wealth. The needs of society are not represented because groups that should do this for them do not participate in political activities. Political science is limited only to the state affairs forgetting to look at it from an economical point of view or from an ideological point of view. POLITCAL SCIENCE: POWER CENTERED Political science that is power centered is defined or explained by the new scholars of politics. These can be referred to neo-classical thinkers or liberalists. Those political scientists that is, the classical thinkers who left out the ‘other’ groups limit the definition of political science. New thinkers define political science is the study of power (ability to rule). Practically power here is the ability to decide, when decisions are made, power is being exercised. This is how the new thinkers look at political science altogether. For instance, in a society the main group or political institution that exists is the government which embraces all activities within the activities; that is to say it provides security, governance, resources, healthcare facilities, good