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Chapter Outline
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  • What political scientists study


  • Politics: what is it?

    • Politics as "the making of common decisions for a group of people through the use of power"
    • Policies binding on people in a state


  • Politics as the making of common decisions


  • Politics as an exercise of power; choice


  • Implicit and manifest power

    • Authority
    • Example of the difficulty of analyzing power


  • Politics and power

    • All politics based on some sort of power
    • Sources of power are highly varied


  • Power and choice

    • Alternative viewpoints about making common policies
      • Public choice
      • Power
    • Rational choice theory


  • Politics of the state

    • The "state" defined


  • Political science

    • Interpretive/qualitative
    • Behavioralist/quantitative
    • Theory
      • Empirical
      • Normative


  • The Pleasures of Politics





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