SCHOLAR: THEORY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE ENGINEERING

THEORY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE ENGINEERING 

 
Political Science uses the proponents of Science within its discipline. Using Science means that the Scientific Method are employed to determine objective and observable results given a phenomenon that is being tested. The discipline of Political Science becomes engineering through TCPS2 Panel on Ethics. This panel serves to ensure that research conducted on any matter follows the guidelines of ethical conduct. This means that the operator and the subjects within an operation are protected by legislations that serve to ensure accountability, responsibility, and accuracy. In this, results are not skewed nor are they manipulated to get a specific response from a specific phenomenon that is being tested through a design scientific experiment. Engineering is about various things, efficiency, accessibility, design amongst other things.  As it pertains to Political Science, engineering takes the form of asking questions to solve a problem of intrigue.  The reason why it is always an issue of intrigue is because Political Science uses its discipline to promote a direction and this is done through power and authority.  In order to do that, the question of intrigue is always made an inquiry, hence Political Science engineering takes the intent of the discipline and allows it to functionally create solutions to many questions pertaining to politics that may seem trivial.  

That problem of intrigue is measured against a value set originating from a Mandate and then sought out as described below.  Political Scientist use the Scientific Method to adjust the domestic environment for various reasons.  Ex.  public opinion, social normativity, social movements, social mobilization, education, policy, amongst others.  These are intrigued to streamline the process of power and authority.  The preceding are explanations of steps within the process of Political Science Engineering. 

Political Scientists take inputs from the domestic environment. This information is gathered from the processes of political socialization, communication and recruitment (Powel et al. 2012). These inputs become demands and through the political establishment they become supply (Krugman, et al. 2018). This process is as follows: interest articulation, interest aggregation, policy making and then policy implementation essentially creating a supply to meet the demand within the domestic environment. Specifically looking at the process of supply and demand within the political landscape and within the government bureaucracy the Policy Process is used as a means to develop the domestic environment and the political institution.  The Policy Cycle is as follows: Agenda Setting, Policy Formation, Legitimation, Implementation, Evaluation and Policy Maintenance Succession and or Termination (Pond 2021). Within Policy Formation are the following: Define the problem, set objectives, evaluate options, arrive at a recommendation and seek approval (Cleland 2021). If this is compounded with the principles of Marketing Development would occur between Agenda Setting, Policy Formation, Legitimation while Penetration occurs through Implementation and Evaluation while Proliferation occurs through Policy Maintenance Succession and or Termination. Investopedia defines Market Penetration as “a measure of how much a product or service is being used by target customers compared to the total estimated market for that product or service” (2023) and Market Development as “the strategy or action steps needed to increase market share or penetration” (2023). The process of Marketing is now widely being used by government actors and government institutions as a matter-of-fact political parties in Canada use Marketing to promote parties' objectives and to conduct SWOT and STP assessments on the domestic environment, essentially commencing the process of determining the population's demands. What becomes interesting however is when the Scientific Method is compounded within this process. When the Scientific Method is applied to this process it becomes a form of Engineering. The Scientific Method can be implemented at the interest aggregation and interest articulation stage of the above-named process meaning that it occurs within the structure of the government and it serves to create a design whereby those being tested are considered participants of the political process. Formally, they would be referred to as respondents. The objective of the Scientific Method in politics serves to create innovation and increased efficiency or better ways of doing things. The Scientific Method within the Political Science discipline not only considers the Policy Cycle but the Business Cycle. This means that all controls, variables and factors need to be clearly defined with the Panel of Ethics as to ensure the value set is followed through to protect the participants. Essentially contingency planning is implemented to guide the scientific experiment based on the objectives of the design. Clearly a testable hypothesis is always necessary. What becomes increasingly important however is that when Business is considered as a part of the government, there is an existing model that is used referred to as the New Public Management Model. This model of business makes the clientele of the government customers. Further consideration of this means that the Business Cycle is always of concern. All these processes occur within a structural hierarchy designed to have checks and balances as individual vertically communicate and exchange information.   It is also very possible that some of these processes occur horizontally within the structure.  

“Ontario law uses life and health in their [definition of Engineering]. Ontario defines Engineering as the "planning, designing, composing, evaluating, advising, reporting, directing or supervising that requires the application of engineering principles and concerns the safeguarding of life, health, property, economic interests, the public welfare or the environment, or the managing of any such act." (Wikipedia- Ontario Professional Engineers Act 1990). According to Engineers Canada there are three parts to the aforementioned definition which are the following 1.  Any of various particular intellectual activities or combinations of them 2. The application of engineering principles, and 3. Safeguarding societal interests (Engineers Canada 2023). For something to be considered “Engineering” all three of those aforementioned aspects must be tasked by the individual. As it pertains to number one and number three, any graduate of Political Science has within their base program to be able to action those. As for number two, Engineering principles (feasibility studies, designing or planning, operations, and decommissioning) are already included and used within the above named processes of which some examples include: In the Policy Process- feasibility studies are done to determine the effectiveness of policy. In the Scientific Method designing is used to create an experiment. In the Business Model, planning for revenues and losses are logged and audited amongst others. Now, as there is no College or regulatory body of the discipline of Political Science, this means that the process of using Engineering within the discipline is widely unregulated. At which point, it becomes increasingly important to be well versed in the above processes to obtain the desired results with concern of the domestic environment and the public at large.  

 

WORK CITED 

Cleland. (2021). POLI 4420. Kwantlen Polytechnic University.  

Engineers Canada. (2023). Public guideline on the practice of engineering in Canada. Retrieved from: https://engineerscanada.ca/public-guideline-on-the-practice-of-engineering-in-canada#-characteristics-of-professions 

Investopedia. Market Penetration: What It Is and Strategies to Increase It. Retrieved from: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/market-penetration.asp 

Krugman, et al., (2018).  Macroeconomics.  New York, USA.  Macmillan Learning.   

Pond. (2021). POLI 4110. Kwantlen Polytechnic University.  

Powell, et al.  (2012).  Comparative Politics Today.  Illinois, USA.  Pearson.   

Wikipedia. (2023. Engineering Law. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_law#cite_note-3