The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to politics and political science:

Politics – the exercise of power; process by which groups of people make collective decisions. Politics is the art or science of running governmental or state affairs (including behavior within civil governments), institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the corporate, academic, and religious segments of society.

Political science – the field concerning the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior.

Fields of study of political science

Related disciplines

Political theory

Decision-making

Election

Order of succession

• Primogeniture

Sortition

• Citizens' assembly

Political institutions

Branches of government

The separation of powers is typically set in the constitution or basic law in order to achieve checks and balances within government. The typical model has three branches, and is referred to as the trias politica.

• Legislature, deliberates and passes laws.
  • Unicameralism
  • Bicameralism
    • Upper house
    • Lower house
  • Tricameralism
  • Tetracameralism
  • Multicameralism
• Executive, executes laws.
  • Head of state, formal, often symbolic, leader of state. Sometimes has veto power over proposed legislation.
    • Monarch
    • Supreme leader
    • President
  • Head of government, the person(s) in charge of day-to-day affairs of the state. Usually heads a cabinet, a Council of Ministers or a Council of State.
    • Chancellor
    • Chief executive
    • Chief minister
    • First minister
    • Premier
    • Prime minister
• Judiciary, often involved in politics through judicial review.
  • Supreme court
  • Constitutional court

Political parties

• Party systems
  • Nonpartisan democracy
  • One-party state
  • Dominant-party system
  • Two-party system
  • Multi-party system
  • Effective number of parties
  • Party discipline
  • Political factions
• Party coalition governments
  • Hung parliament
  • Confidence and supply
  • Minority government
  • Rainbow coalition
  • Grand coalition
  • National unity government
  • Majority government

Political behavior

Theories of political behaviour

Political strategy

Voting behavior

Political dysfunction

Types of polities and forms of government

By level of social organisation

By formal power structure

By source of power

Political ideologies and philosophies

Governments of the world

Political issues and policies

Rights

Economic policy

Foreign and security policy

Social policy

Politics by continent

Foreign relations by continents

Political parties by continent

History of politics

• History of political science
• History of political thinking
• Political history
  • List of years in politics

Political scholars

• List of political scientists
• List of political philosophers
  • List of social and political philosophers
• List of political theorists

Influential literature

• The Art of War – by Sun Tsu (c. 544–496 BC)
• History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (c. 460 – c. 400 BC)
• The Republic and Laws – by Plato (427–347 BC)
• The Politics and Nicomachean Ethics – Aristotle (384–322 BC)
• Arthashastra – Chāṇakya (c. 350–283 BC)
• Meditations – Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161–180 CE
• The Prince – by Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527)
• The Book of Five Rings – Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584––1645)
• Leviathan – Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)
• The Wealth of Nations – by Adam Smith (1723–1790)
• On War – by Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831)
• The Communist Manifesto – by Karl Marx (1818–1883)

See also

Further reading

• Roskin, M.; Cord, R. L.; Medeiros, J. A.; Jones, W. S. (2007). Political Science: An Introduction. 10th ed. New York: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-242575-9 (10). ISBN 978-0-13-242575-9 (13).
• Tausch, A.; Prager, F. (1993). Towards a Socio-Liberal Theory of World Development. Basingstoke: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin's Press.
• Oxford Handbooks of Political Science – ten-volume set covering the political science topics political methodology, public policy, political theory, political economy, comparative politics, contextual political analysis, international relations, Law and Politics, political behavior, and political institutions. The general editor of the series is Robert E. Goodin.

References

External links

• American Political Science Association
• European Consortium for Political Research
• International Political Science Association
• Political Studies Association of the UK
• PROL: Political Science Research Online (prepublished research)
• Truman State University, "Political Science Research Design Handbook"
• "A New Nation Votes - American Election Returns, 1787 - 1825". American Antiquarian Society -- Election Records Project. 13 November 2006. Archived from the original on Dec 8, 2006.
• "POLITICAL Domain Links IV". Hodges' Health Career Model. Archived from the original on Oct 20, 2014.