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

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 categories. Firstly, the Marxists (old scholars) have defined politics with emphasis on the activities of the government or state institutions only in a society without considering other groups; this can be termed as politics that is state centered. Duverger (1972) defines politics as the science of institutions in relation to authority. Secondly, the Liberals (new thinkers) have added to this definition by saying that political science is an activity that involves making decisions on how well available resources are distributed and this is done to avoid conflicts and ultimately bring harmony in society. This is termed as politics that power centered. Both notions have merits and demerits and so by comparing them, one can make a distinct difference between the two.
POLITICAL SCIENCE: STATE CENTERED.
Since the 1980s much primacy has been placed in explaining the reality of politics. The old thinkers look at politics in terms of the state. There are many political thinkers who have defined political science a systematic study of the state, ranging from Aristotle, Plato, Willoughby, J.J Rousseau, Karl Marx, John Locke and many others. According to the Oxford English dictionary (2005) politics is the art of government that deals with the form,

Bibliography: Duverger, M. (1971) The idea of politics; the use of power in society. London, Methuen Duverger, M. (1972) The study of politics. London, Crowell Company. Heywood, A. (2005) Politics. London, Pelgrave-Macmillan. Lasswel, H.D. and Kaplan, M.A. (1950) power and Society. New Haven, Yale University Press. Stolz, M.F (1971) Politics of the new left. Beverly Hills, Glencoe Press.