---
title: "History of political science"
chunk: 2/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_political_science"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:00:09.735930+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Renaissance ===
During the Italian Renaissance, Niccolò Machiavelli established the emphasis of modern political science on direct empirical observation of political institutions and actors. In his treatise, The Prince, Machiavelli famously posited that at certain times in a prince's reign, controversial means should be considered if they help establish a prince royal authority. Machiavelli therefore also argues against the use of idealistic models in politics, and has been described as the father of the "politics model" of political science. In this work he expounds on how one should proceed in establishing and running a republic. However, some similar themes from The Prince can even be found in the Discourses as well. 
Later, the expansion of the scientific paradigm during the Enlightenment further pushed the study of politics beyond normative determinations.

=== Enlightenment ===
The works of the French philosophers Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot to name a few are paragon for political analysis, social science, social and political critic. Their influence leading to the French revolution has been enormous in the development of modern democracy throughout the world.
Thomas Hobbes, well known for his theory of the social contract, believed that a strong central power, such as a monarchy, was necessary to rule the innate selfishness of the individual but neither of them believed in the divine right of kings. John Locke, on the other hand, who gave us Two Treatises of Government and who did not believe in the divine right of kings either, sided with Aquinas and stood against both Machiavelli and Hobbes by accepting Aristotle's dictum that man seeks to be happy in a state of social harmony as a social animal. Unlike Aquinas' preponderant view on the salvation of the soul from original sin, Locke believed man comes into this world with a mind that is basically a tabula rasa. According to Locke, an absolute ruler as proposed by Hobbes is unnecessary, for natural law is based on reason and equality, seeking peace and survival for man.
The new Western philosophical foundations that emerged from the pursuit of reason during the Enlightenment era helped pave the way for policies that emphasized a need for a separation of church and state. Principles similar to those that dominated the material sciences could be applied to society as a whole, originating the social sciences. Politics could be studied in a laboratory as it were, the social milieu. In 1787, Alexander Hamilton wrote: "...The science of politics like most other sciences has received great improvement." (The Federalist Papers Number 9 and 51). Both the marquis d'Argenson and the abbé de Saint-Pierre described politics as a science; d'Argenson was a philosopher and de Saint-Pierre an allied reformer of the Enlightenment.
Other important figures in American politics who participated in the Enlightenment were Benjamin Franklin, George Mason, and Thomas Jefferson.

=== 19th century ===
The Darwinian models of evolution and natural selection exerted considerable influence in the late 19th century. Society seemed to be evolving ever upward, a belief that was shattered by World War I.
"History is past politics and politics present history" was the motto of the first generation of American political scientists, 1882–1900.  The motto had been coined by the Oxford professor Edward Augustus Freeman, and was enshrined on the wall of the seminar room at Johns Hopkins University where the first large-scale training of America and political scientists began.  The founding professors of the field included Westel Woodbury Willoughby, Herbert Baxter Adams at Johns Hopkins, John Burgess and William Dunning at Columbia, Woodrow Wilson at Princeton, and Albert Bushnell Hart at Harvard.  Their graduate seminars had a thick historical cast, which typically reflected their experience in German University seminars.  However, succeeding generations of scholars progressively cut back on the history and deliberate fashion.  The second generation wanted to model itself on the physical sciences.
In the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s), political science became not only a prestigious university curriculum but also an applied science that was welcomed as a way to apply expertise to the problems of governance. Among the most prominent applied political scientists were Woodrow Wilson, Charles A. Beard, and Charles E. Merriam. Many cities and states set up research bureaus to apply the latest results.

=== United States ===

The American Political Science Association, established in 1903, is one of the largest professional association of political scientists.

=== Behavioralism ===

Behavioralism (Behaviouralism) is an empirical approach which emerged in the 1930s in the United States. It emphasized an objective, quantified approach to explain and predict political behavior. Guy says "Behaviouralism emphasized the systematic understanding of all identifiable manifestations of political behaviour. But it also meant the application of rigorous scientific and statistical methods to standardize testing and to attempt value free inquiry of the world of politics... For the behaviouralist, the role of political science is primarily to gather and analyze facts as rigorously and objectively as possible. Petro p 6 says "Behavioralists generally felt that politics should be studied much in the same way hard sciences are studied." It is associated with the rise of the behavioral sciences, modeled after the natural sciences. As Guy notes, "The term behaviouralism was recognized as part of a larger scientific movement occurring simultaneously in all of the social sciences, now referred to as the behavioural sciences." This means that behavioralism tries to explain behavior with an unbiased, neutral point of view.
Behavioralism seeks to examine the behavior, actions, and acts of individuals – rather than the characteristics of institutions such as legislatures, executives, and judiciaries and groups in different social settings and explain this behavior as it relates to the political.

==== Systems ====
Gunnell argues that since the 1950s the concept of system was the most important theoretical concept used by American political scientists. The idea appeared in sociology and other social sciences but David Easton specified how it could be best applied to behavioral research on politics.