Editing Social science (section)

===Political science===
{{Main|Political science|Outline of political science|Politics}}
[[File:Aristoteles Louvre.jpg|thumb|right|[[Aristotle]] asserted that man is a political animal in his ''[[Politics (Aristotle)|Politics]]''.<ref>Ebenstein, Alan (2002). Introduction to Political Thinkers. Boston, Massachusetts: Wadsworth.</ref>]]
Political science is an academic and research discipline that deals with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of [[political system]]s and political behaviour. Fields and subfields of political science include [[political economy]], [[political philosophy|political theory and philosophy]], civics and [[comparative politics]], theory of [[direct democracy]], apolitical governance, participatory direct democracy, national systems, cross-national political analysis, political development, international relations, [[foreign policy]], [[international law]], politics, public administration, administrative behaviour, public law, judicial behaviour, and [[Policy|public policy]]. Political science also studies [[power in international relations]] and the theory of [[great powers]] and [[superpower]]s.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Political science is methodologically diverse, although recent years have witnessed an upsurge in the use of the [[scientific method]],<ref>{{Cite book|isbn = 978-1-4039-3422-2|title = Rational Choice|last1 = Hindmoor|first1 = Andrew|year = 2006| publisher=Palgrave Macmillan }}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2014}} that is, the proliferation of formal-deductive model building and quantitative hypothesis testing. Approaches to the discipline include [[rational choice]], classical political philosophy, [[Interpretivism (social science)|interpretivism]], [[structuralism]], and [[behavioralism|behaviouralism]], [[Philosophical realism|realism]], pluralism, and [[Institutionalism in political parties|institutionalism]]. Political science, as one of the social sciences, uses methods and techniques that relate to the kinds of inquiries sought: primary sources such as historical documents, interviews, and official records, as well as secondary sources such as [[scholarly article]]s, are used in building and testing theories. Empirical methods include [[sample survey|survey]] research, [[statistical analysis]] [[econometrics|or econometrics]], [[case studies]], experiments, and model building.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}