Can someone give me the 101 of political science?

DeVore

I am interested in this area but have little solid background.

I'm looking for the basics ie: To be considered a proper government, you need these things: Legislature, Supreme court, Police, Senate, Judiciary... etc.

I'm specifically thinking of a Republic or a generic modern day democracy.

Links to anything out there like this would also be very gratefully received.

Can anyone guide my reading or help me understand the very basics of civics?

DeV.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Ostrom

Jonathan Wolff's Introduction to Political Philosophy is a good place to start. Brief, concise and well written - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Political-Philosophy-Jonathan-Wolff/dp/019929609X

Akrasia

That's a good recommendation, and when you're finished with that book, Rosen and Wolff's Political Thought is an excellent compendium of most of the major political thinkers and their philosophies.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Political-Thought-Oxford-Readers-Michael/dp/0192892789/ref=pd_rhf_shvl_3

DeVore

Terrific stuff guys, thanks. Lots of reading there.

Donegalfella wrote:

Montesquieu, in The Spirit of Laws, argued that the possibility of autocratic or tyrannous government could be minimized if government were divided into executive, legislative, and judicial branches; the goal was to keep each branch of government in check by the others. This hugely influenced the design of the U.S. Constitution. (On this, The Federalist Papers, written mostly by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, is well worth reading.)

Thats exactly the sort of basics I'm looking for.... What are the constituent parts of a "government"... what are their roles... how do they check each other... how does any country "self-right" through checks and balances...

DeV.

Lockstep

DeVore wrote: »

Terrific stuff guys, thanks. Lots of reading there.



Thats exactly the sort of basics I'm looking for.... What are the constituent parts of a "government"... what are their roles... how do they check each other... how does any country "self-right" through checks and balances...

DeV.

I'm in a hurry to get to work so will have to be brief, will try and expand on this later.
The three parts of the separation of powers are the following;
THe executive makes the laws official (the government)
The legislature creates the laws (THe Dail)
THe judiciary interprets and enforce the laws (the courts)

Clawdeeus

Hey, in a bit of a rush so I cant check this for you but if you search on itunes for a political science class you will almost certainly find a few courses, usually all the top universities record the lectures and put it up there.

Just for anyone interested there is a great political philosophy course by Yale up there too. All free of course.

Ostrom

Academic earth?

http://academicearth.org/courses/introduction-to-political-philosophy

potlatch

DeVore wrote: »

Terrific stuff guys, thanks. Lots of reading there.



Thats exactly the sort of basics I'm looking for.... What are the constituent parts of a "government"... what are their roles... how do they check each other... how does any country "self-right" through checks and balances...

DeV.

Actually, DeVore, you might benefit from book using the 'comparative politics' method. Instead of presenting theories (historical or otherwise), comparative politics just compares systems across the world, analyses them, and tries to see if there are any patterns. So it would get you to a broader and deeper understanding of how different and similar existing government systems are.

You seem interested at least as interested in the design and workings of politics than the abstract (and often old) philosophical theories.

I'd recommend 'Comparative Politics and Government' by Hague and Harrop. It's a great introduction with great references for further reading. Another is 'Representative Government in Modern Europe' by Gallagher, Laver and Mair is another good one about actual functioning systems in Europe.

DeVore

Ok, I'll come clean, I'm kinda looking around to feed my brain with ideas for the *structure* of a workable "government" for Boards.ie... its more a wild-assed idea of mine at the moment but I thought... hey, there's a political theory forum, they would know the theory of what parts a "government" has...

So far its been hugely helpful, particularly the break down of a government (thanks Kickoutthejams!)...

I will get reading and trying to see how this stuff MIGHT be applied to Boards and how we might be able to do better then that online too... interesting times...

DeV.

ps: I'm not talking about elections or democracy, we'll work out how to populate the wings once I have identified their existance and purpose.

Ostrom

DeVore wrote: »

Ok, I'll come clean, I'm kinda looking around to feed my brain with ideas for the *structure* of a workable "government" for Boards.ie... its more a wild-assed idea of mine at the moment but I thought... hey, there's a political theory forum, they would know the theory of what parts a "government" has...

So far its been hugely helpful, particularly the break down of a government (thanks Kickoutthejams!)...

I will get reading and trying to see how this stuff MIGHT be applied to Boards and how we might be able to do better then that online too... interesting times...

DeV.

ps: I'm not talking about elections or democracy, we'll work out how to populate the wings once I have identified their existance and purpose.

Sounds great!

Is this in relation to the moderation structure or senior admin?

potlatch

DeVore wrote: »

Ok, I'll come clean, I'm kinda looking around to feed my brain with ideas for the *structure* of a workable "government" for Boards.ie... its more a wild-assed idea of mine at the moment but I thought... hey, there's a political theory forum, they would know the theory of what parts a "government" has...

So far its been hugely helpful, particularly the break down of a government (thanks Kickoutthejams!)...

I will get reading and trying to see how this stuff MIGHT be applied to Boards and how we might be able to do better then that online too... interesting times...

DeV.

ps: I'm not talking about elections or democracy, we'll work out how to populate the wings once I have identified their existance and purpose.

DeV, I'd say comparative politics books would be more up your street - much more focused on actual reality, not theory. You'll get models of existing systems and have a better idea of what works and doesn't work in different contexts.

I'm working in the field of governance, government systems. More than happy to talk(type), share ideas. I probably have a rake of resources. However, I'm not sure you could transpose republican democracy to the internet just like that, other models would have to be looked at. Any more specific detail, you'll have to PM .

DeVore

Ok, I'll PM when I get a chance, but this is something I'm going to chew over and then throw out for debate and network-brainage before I write anything in stone.

Efla, it will relate to whatever is needs to relate to. Site policy, self governance etc etc. I dont like the idea of voting, I think its skewed by definition but I would like to extend the "input" of the wider admins/mods and even users into something with represents them in some way...

DeV.