political science assignment help australia

political science assignment help australia

The Role of Political Science in Understanding and Shaping Australian Politics

1. Introduction to Political Science and Its Relevance in Australia

In the very shadow of its object, the political scientist languishes. To counteract this terminally unpolitical state, to give the poor political scientist a chance to have a finger in the pie before it is eaten, is part and parcel of the chapter, a plea to keep the chapter. Specifically, what political science, academician, student, or ‘professionals,’ should do is to take politics seriously, recognizing that in spite of Almond’s assertions to the contrary, ‘we’ are the best equipped to observe the relevant things. However, we should not restrict ourselves to the usual battles about which approach to our study may bring us closer to the truth. In the light of the importance of what we study, and the unpolitical state of affairs, ‘we’ should be willing to enter into nonscientific discussions that Burgen’s state and the advocates of indicative planning, for instance, today’s battlefields of power.

In the 34th issue of the current social research, we are told that political science is experiencing the best of times. Positivistic and quantitatively oriented political science seems to gain center stage in American undergraduate and graduate education. Australian political science, largely professionally oriented and highly diversified in its interests, grossly ignores the fact that Down Under its subject matter is where the action is.

Ladies and gentlemen: Above all else, we should demand from political science that it take politics seriously and that it give guidance in the problems that notably politicize today’s unpolitical man. With this serious attitude and with a constant endeavor to keep scientific standards high, I see political science forging ahead. Political science is interested in politics, in the politics within one nation – the good society.

2. Key Concepts and Theories in Political Science

Political science attempts to analyze and understand why and how people resolve their conflicts and solve their common problems in this particular way. It does this by forming and testing empirical generalizations through the comparison of events, institutions, and people, testing theories about the causes and consequences of events, and developing new theories accounting for these consequences. These tasks at the heart of the study of political science depend on certain methods derived from the social science disciplines and on a set of concepts, hypotheses, and theories that suggest useful and important directions for further inquiry. They are the subject of the subsequent chapter.

Political science is an analytic discipline that studies the process of making collective decisions, usually through the political systems or institutions of the state. Its focus is politics, a substantive concept that refers to social relationships, authoritative decisions by governments about common problems, strategies and interpretations about government authority that occur in the context of these relationships and decisions, and the goods or outcomes that result. In the contemporary democratic state, the preoccupation of political science is to understand the functioning of political systems, evaluate their policies, and suggest reforms that will lead to improvement in the democratic processes by which policies are made and applied. Consequently, all great issues of politics – the concept of law, the idea of justice, the nature of authority and liberty, the terms of social life in the political community – are important for political science.

3. Australian Political Landscape: Institutions and Processes

Attitudes toward the position of the Governor-General are ambivalent. The support or criticism directed at the incumbent suggests that the public may be in denial about the significance of the reserve powers vested in the crown. The more attention it receives, the more the Governor-General (or a future monarch) may become a visible representative of the British monarchy and the constitutional link to the nation-state. Successful Vice-Regal public diplomacy involves securing a proper mixture of formalism and Australian-style informality while carrying out the representative functions of the head of state, including attendance at royal and vice-regal events. In 2003, a majority of Australian vote-audit participants indicated they would accept a dual-model where a resident Australian head of state replaced the monarch after the death of Elizabeth II, while her representative as ceremonial head of state continued to serve in the Vice-Regal Office. At some point in the future, the Prime Minister may be responsible for initiating legislation to define the role of the presidency (including the succession mechanism) in setting the parameters of the parliamentary system.

The Australian political landscape consists of several central institutions and processes. From a historical institutional perspective, the form and function of institutions matter. The principal national institutions of politics include the Governor-General, federal parliament, the Executive Council, the Prime Minister, federal ministers, public servants, armed forces, and the federal judiciary. These institutions operate under a constraint imposed by a separate and independent division of powers: the relationship between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government; and the practice of conducting elections using universal adult suffrage. The Governor-General retains authority over decisions about the dissolution and activation of federal parliament and the issuing of writs to conduct national elections. Its powers are both discretionary and legal, but in practice, they are circumscribed by the evolving conventions of the Australian Constitution.

4. Current Issues and Debates in Australian Politics

This chapter has ranged widely through many questions to focus mainly on the most important issue in political science, i.e., the interpretation of the institutions in which government and administration are centralized. The institutional variables of federalism and particularism are seen as the most important explanations of particular features of capital city attributes. We find them generally useful in two special theories of voting behavior, i.e., one that suggests voters know enough for effective control; the other that suggests voters know very little, but still use control the best they can. Knowing relatively little, we must use various substitutes for knowing. Not the least useful of these substitute cues is the physical capital city attribute. We also conclude that it will be useful to include a measure of fiscal extraction in voting models, since we find a higher rate of such extraction in capital cities.

5. The Future of Political Science in Australia

Let us hope so: may our discipline flourish as it evolves under our care.

None can foresee the future, but one can speculate. It is likely that growing pressures for adaptable responses to rapidly changing environments and the resurgence of strong interest in Australian politics will spur the growth of political science. Political science is probably well-placed to satisfy that interest, both in terms of subject matter and as a field of action. Nearly 90 years after the formation of the ISP, we have a discipline boasting reasonably solid foundations. These were not particularly pleasant for those of us who have shared the experience, but the construction remained standing and there seems a fair chance that it will be there in another 90 years. If the Confucian dictum about the importance of the long view in politics has any validity in political science as an examination of politics, then the future could indeed be interesting.