The scope of the discipline of Political Science is large and vast
as bodies of education become political resources by virtue of the Theory of
Structural Functionalism described in the Bingham text. Bingham describes
the Theory of Structural Functionalism as, “the government has a structure and
within that structure, there are functions” (2012). The structure of the
government is separate from the domestic environment wherein socialization,
communication and recruitment occurs. Within the structure of
the government are the functions of Interest Articulation, Interest Aggregation,
Policy Making and Policy Implementation. The system functions and the
process functions serve to distribute and extract resources from the domestic
environment so that the government can perform its activities. With all
this a Political Scientist that works in the government conducts and adheres to
the structure of the government and its functions through the policy
process. With that said however, there are Political Scientists that are
not employed within the government body and with that, they need a basis by
which to implement Political Science concepts just as those Political Scientist
working within the government. For these individuals they have the
ability to implement by virtue of the Theory of Symbolic Interactionism and
through Sociological Imagination. Sociological Imagination can be
defined as a “perspective that sees society as the product of shared symbols,
such as language. The social world is, therefore, constructed by the meanings
that individuals attach to events and social interactions, and these symbols
are transmitted across the generations through language” (Simply Psychology
2023). Symbolic Interactionism “is a theoretical framework in Sociology
that describes how societies are created and maintained through the repeated
actions of individuals” (Simply Psychology 2023). For further
clarification, Akers defines Symbolic Interactionism as a process whereby
individuals interact with the government and its structure by “imagining
themselves in the roles of others [notwithstanding governments corporations etc.] and incorporate this into their conceptions
of themselves” (2013). This means that
through psychological means, those Political Scientist can still affect the
policy process by placing themselves or conducting themselves as if they were
in the government body even if they were not or are not working for the
government itself or by menially continuing with ordinary day to day activities
involving civil civic. Through that Political Scientist have the ability
to start their own Initiatives or Directives in preparation for entry within
the government body. Further, through the concept of Sociological Imagination,
Political Scientist have a two factor implementation of political
actions. Sociological Imagination is described as the ability for an
individual to “pull away from the situation and think from an alternative point
of view” (Thought co. 2019). In order to conduct the process of Sociological
Imagination the person must analyze, define, and describe a scenario, analyze
that scenario and then think about it from varying degrees of level and depth.
This process allows the individual to look at the issues they are experiencing
and it relates it to other people, history or societal structures. Within
the process of Sociological Imagination, the Political Scientist has the
ability to be able to relate micro phenomenon to the larger meso or macro
domestic environment. It is a method to extract the relevancy and test it
hypothetically via the Scientific Method within the larger domestic
environment. This becomes a necessity because it allows the Political
Scientist to plan contingency through cause and effect of the relevancy.
With regards to the scope of the discipline of Political Science itself, it is
a large scope. The scope is set forth via a theory as Structural Functionalism
wherein other disciplines become political resources (Interest Aggregation)
under the theory as Political Science takes these resources and uses them to
meet political objectives. Academia being used by politics as a resource
is not new in the discipline, countries such as China, North Korea, Russia,
Japan, Moldova and USA have all used education as a tool of propaganda.
In China, they use education as propaganda. They shroud the government
injustices such as Tiananmen Square. In North Korea, they use education
as a means to manipulate the population into a good perspective of the Kim
political dynasty. In Japan, the used education to shroud the World War atrocities
that the country partook in. In Moldova, education is used to promote
independence and separation from other states. In the USA, education is
used for capitalism and free market economics. With regards to the use of
such informations, according to Psychology Today on an experiment “Veronica
Hefner and Barbara J. Wilson (2013) investigated the influence of romantic
ideals as portrayed in the movies on the way young people view
relationships…. they found that subjects who watched such films to learn
exhibited stronger endorsement of romantic ideals than those who did not watch
to learn” (Psychology Today 2022). This means that Political Science, and
its faucets or study of ideology, and rhetoric and symbols and propaganda can
employ social learning against the other disciplines in order to be able to
action political resources at a higher intensity (stronger endorsement) than a discipline that is
bound by the social constructs (convention and custom) and constraints caused by that discipline.
This means that in Political Science, its pupil’s action the Theory of Structural
Functionalism through Symbolic Interactionism, Sociological Imagination and Social
Learning. The scope of Political Science must be clarified here and
this is done through seeing the other disciplines as political resources which
is consistent with the Theory of Structural Functionalism per
Bingham. Bingham states that within the policy process, the
Political Scientist (through symbolic interactionism) uses political resources
to Articulate and Aggregate Interest for the creation of policy. This
then means the discipline has some form of discretionary and apparent authority over the
other disciplines as in order to understand politics, the Political Scientist
must understand the domestic environment, the government body and all its parts (structures and processes) and the society.
The competent Political Scientist
must have a large general competency of the other disciplines, this is
notwithstanding Law, Criminology and Sociology in order to perform. The
higher amount of general competence the Political Scientist assumes, the higher
the probability they understand the content of political communication and
rhetoric, and the higher the probability they could make effective change per
the discipline.
WORK CITED
Akers et
al. (2013). Criminological Theories. New
York. Oxford University Press.
Powel et
al. (2012). Comparative Politics
Today. Illinois. Pearson.
Psychology Today. (2022). The Science Behind Love at First
Sight. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/why-bad-looks-good/202211/the-science-behind-love-at-first-sight
Simply Psychology. (2023). Symbolic Interactionism
Theory & Examples. Retrieved from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/symbolic-interaction-theory.html
Thought co. (2019). Definition of the Sociological
Imagination and Overview of the Book. Retrieved from: https://www.thoughtco.com/sociological-imagination-3026756
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