How did the concept of world relations originate?

 

History of International Relations

Mencius of China, Kautilya of India and Machiavelli of Italy
mention international relations in ancient times. The review of international
relations gained importance after the First World War. In fact, after the
Second World War, international relations was established as a separate subject
and theoretical discussion of international relations began.

International relations is a rapidly changing subject. In the
post-Cold War era, the dominance of the United States as a single superpower,
the inaction of the United Nations, the impact of globalization in the new
world order, the prestige of the World Trade Organization, the radical change
in the old definition of the sovereignty of the national state, etc., have
brought the nature of international relations to a new turning point.

Key concepts in international relations include national power,
national interest, non-alignment and globalization. The role of power is
central in international affairs. Power has become a central concept in international
politics today. Different countries of the world are divided into superpowers,
big powers, middle powers, small powers etc. However, modern political
scientists did not mean only military power by power or power. National
interest is also important as is national power or power. The foreign policy of
every state is based on national interest. On the other hand, the non-aligned
movement that developed with third world countries in the post-war world after
the Second World War is very insignificant in the current unipolar world. The
Non-Aligned Movement is seeking to establish itself in a new role in a changing
world. Many are in favor of identifying today's era as the era of
globalization. Although globalization is not a new concept, its application in
the post-Cold War world began after 1991.

Trygve Mathiesen [Methodology in the study of International
Relations]

International Relations embraces all kinds of relations
traversing state boundaries; no matter whether they are of an economic, legal,
political or any other character, whether they be private or official.

Read More

What is the importance of law, freedom, equality and justice in political science?

  The importance of the concepts of law, freedom, equality and justice in political science

This time in the discussion of political science, I will discuss the importance of the concepts of law, freedom, equality and justice. In the distant past, sophistic thinkers in the Greek city-states, Stoic philosophers in Rome, Plato and Aristotle, among others, expressed their valuable views on the subject. Later liberal political scientists, Marxist theorists, and more recently neo-liberalists have come up with better explanations. Political science as a dynamic subject of sociology cannot be stopped in one place, so the conventional notions about the subjects in question have changed with the changing times.

Law, freedom, equality and justice are closely related. Political scientists have termed the sovereign order as law, but at the same time they have said that the law must not only be recognized, declared and enforced by the state, it must be just and reasonable. On the other hand, just as freedom is meaningless without equality, so is equality without freedom. An analysis of history reveals that the demand for independence arose long before equality. When slavery was practiced in ancient Greece and Rome, not all people were considered equal. At that time the place of freedom was far above equality. In fact, in the American Declaration of Independence (1776) and the French Declaration of Human Rights (1789), the idea of a combination of equality and freedom was first realized.

Read More

History of Democracy

  Ancient history of the rise of democracy in political science

Democracy is an ancient concept. The word democracy was prevalent in Athens, Greece. Democratic ideals are also found in the ancient scriptures of India. However, as a result of the European Renaissance, democratic ideals spread in the late Middle Ages. The full development of democracy as an ideal concept can be seen in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The French Revolution, the American struggle for independence, has marked a significant step in the implementation of democratic ideals. Liberal philosophy in Europe in the nineteenth century gave democracy a new look, known as liberal democracy. Rousseau's theory of general will, Bentham's benevolence, Mill's individualism, Green's theory of resistance, Adam Smith's ideas of free trade and private enterprise enriched liberal democracy.

Democrat David Held has recently classified democracy. In his book, Models of Democracy, he states that the history of democracy is very strange and illusory. Although every political system claims to be democratic, there is a huge difference between what they say and what they do. Held has shown how democracy has been destroyed by fascism and Nazism, how deep democracy has been built through deep social struggle and self-sacrifice.

Theoretically, the complete opposite of democracy is dictatorship. Notable among the philosophers who provided special fuel for the foundations of the dictatorship were the German philosophers Hegel, Nietzsche and Tritzke. The basis of dictatorship is state power or animal power. In a dictatorship,state is head but the people are minor. In a dictatorship, the freedom, liberty and rights of the people are sacrificed for the state. Here first the state, then the people. In a dictatorship, the state is omnipotent, holistic and almighty. Dictatorships arose during the reigns of Nero and Julius Caesar in ancient Rome, Napoleon in France, Count Cavure in Italy, and Hitler in Germany in the twentieth century, Mussolini in Italy, and Franco in Spain.

Read More

The origin of the state

 Discuss the origin of the state

The origins of the state date back to ancient Greece. Greek philosophers used the word 'polis' to mean 'state'. Roman philosophers called the state 'Civitas'. The Teutons were the first to mention the great state. They call the state 'Status'. Machiavelli, the father of modern state thought in the sixteenth century, used the word 'state' in his book The Prince.

The state is the basic and most important institution of society. The birth of the state at a certain level of social development. But there is disagreement among political scientists as to when and how the state originated. There are two main theories in the theory of the origin of the state. They are i) philosophical theory and ii) historical theory. The theories that have been researched through the philosophical method and have presented their thoughts on the origin of the state are - the theory of divine origin, the doctrine of coercion, the doctrine of social contract. On the other hand, evolutionism or historical doctrine has been developed by adopting historical methods.

Concepts about national society, race and state are very important in the discussion of political theory. Although there is no significant difference between Nationality and Nation, there is disagreement among political scientists as to the meaning of these two words. Many consider the nation and the state to be one and the same. But there is a natural distinction between the national masses, the nation and the state.

Political scientists like Professor Thomas Hill Green did not want to draw any distinction between the state or the nation. They call the state a politically organized nation or people. But the idea of ​​nation and state is not one. According to scholars, the state is a political concept. Race, on the other hand, is an emotional realization. Even if the state is formed, the process of nation building may not be complete. Elements such as communalism, regionalism and separatism stand in the way of nation building. However, political scientists have ruled that nation and state are complementary to each other. For this reason the state is called the national state.

The theory of the right of the nation to self-determination has long since espoused the principle of 'one nation, one state'. Political scientists have argued for and against this theory. In Europe, nationalism originated as a result of the Renaissance and the Reformation. During the Second World War, its distorted form came to light. The world's thinkers therefore put internationalism as an alternative to nationalism.

Read More

How did modern political science originate?

 The origin of the concept of modern political science

 The concept of political science originated in an important chapter in the analysis of social life. For a long time, political science was in the stage of policy-philosophy. Modern political science was born in the sixteenth century at the hands of Machiavelli, the pioneer of the European Renaissance. Machiavelli developed modern state thought by rejecting the logic, religion, morality, etc. of Christian philosophy. Machiavelli introduced a new political philosophy, transcending medieval bigotry and superstitious stereotypes, highlighting the royal sovereignty of a powerful nation-state free of religious control. Machiavelli's successors, Jean Bodan and Thomas Hobbes, initiated a strong, independent state philosophy. Bodan spoke of establishing a strong monarchy to liberate the country from the lawlessness and anarchy that had prevailed in French society in the Middle Ages in the name of religion.

Blaming the Church for the disarray of contemporary society, Hobbes supported the monarchy as a symbol of an ultimate sovereign power. In later politics, the sovereignty of the people was established as an alternative to the monarchy. The glorious revolution of England in 1688, the American independence struggle in 1776, and the theory of lock rights behind the French Revolution in 1789 and Russo's theory of mass sovereignty were groundbreaking. In fact, a new trend in political thought began in the eighteenth century.

The nineteenth century saw a revolutionary breakthrough in politics. During this time the philosophy of idealism, benevolence, liberalism and individualism on the one hand, and materialist Marxist philosophy on the other, was established. Lenin later presented a classical explanation of Marxism. Later, a group of thinkers like Edward Bernstein and Carl Kautsky introduced a different school of thought about socialism. They spoke of establishing socialism in a constitutional manner. This is called democratic socialism.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, behavioral statesmen introduced a new trend outside of traditional politics. Notable among them are Graham Wallace, Arthur Bentley, Charles Merriam, David Easton and others. Behaviorism abandons theoretical and institutionalized discourse in politics and places the utmost importance on the analysis of the behavior of individuals and groups. Behaviorism is an attempt to make the discussion of political science in a completely value-neutral way. Later, in the sixties of the twentieth century, a post-behavioral trend was born in politics.

The nature and scope of politics is constantly changing. According to modern political scientists, recent politics is largely social. The full identity of political life could not be found in the old institutional discussions. It was limited to discussions between state institutions such as Department of Administration, Department of Law, Department of Justice, local autonomous institutions, and so on. For this reason, in modern political discourse, attempts can be made to present a complete picture of political life by reviewing political parties, pressure groups, interest groups, electoral behavior of voters, participation in politics, public opinion, political culture, political socialization etc.

The political scientists of the time raised the issue of power as the main subject of politics. According to Robert Dale, a political system is an uninterrupted stream of human relations with which power, rule or authority is involved. ("A political system is a persistent pattern of human relationships that involves power, rule or authority").

Read More

How is political science made?

 The beginning of the formation of political science

The famous philosopher Aristotle, the father of political science, said that man who does not live in society is either an animal or God. Aristotle saw society and the state as one. According to him, man has acquired a natural tendency to lead a group life from nature. Gradually the village system developed beyond the boundaries of family needs. Gradually the city-state was formed with many villages. The modern national sovereign state has come a long way in evolution.

According to scholars, the word politics comes from the Greek word 'polis'. The word 'polis' means city. Aristotle discusses 'polis' in detail in his book Politics. However, his discussion of the politics and problems of the city-states of ancient Greece bears no resemblance to the current concept of 'politics'.

In the fifth century BC, state thought was first observed among the sophist thinkers of ancient Greece, such as Protagoras, Euripides, Alcidamas, and Antiphon. The thought of Protagoras matches the hint of humanism. According to him, the true text of man is man himself. Euripides's writings deny inherent social inequality, and even the legitimacy of slavery prevalent in Greek society at the time. According to Euripides, there is one thing that makes a slave feel ashamed, and that is his name. Besides, in no other case is he inferior. Alcidamus used to say that God created all human beings freely, nature did not enslave any human being.

Socrates later overcame the scattered ideas of the Sophists and developed his brilliant philosophy. The essence of the theory propagated by Socrates is that virtue is true knowledge, it can be learned and taught again. Influenced by Socrates' thought, his able student, the Greek philosopher Plato, explained the basic concepts of justice in his famous book, The Republic. In his writings, Plato gave full authority to run the state in the hands of 'philosopher kings'. He gives the most importance to socialism by rejecting the idea of ​​isolated selfish people. Aristotle, a student of Pluto, was the first to elevate politics to the level of a comprehensive science. For this reason he is called the father of political science. His discussion of the ideal state in his book Politics reveals his fundamental differences with Plato's thought. According to him, in a good state, the law will be the ultimate sovereign, not any individual. Aristotle's collection of constitutional histories of 158 Greek city-states opened a new horizon in thought. He believed that the existence of the state depended on the sovereignty of law, the freedom and equality of the citizens, the constitutional government and the moral ideals of civilized people.

Read More