Judul : Like nursing, political science is hot cake
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Like nursing, political science is hot cake
A Nigerian is said to have mentioned courses which, according to him, prospective students shouldn’t study in the university, and political science makes his list. Other persons have picked up the comment, adding that anyone who’s not from a wealthy family shouldn’t read political science because the job prospect is nil. Those who made this comment may have (a deleted) good intentions, but good intentions voiced without considering all relevant angles in a matter are more harmful than keeping quiet.
First, reading a course that gives a person satisfaction is important in this conversation. There’s a difference between making money and the feeling of being wholly pleased with one’s life. Sometimes the course one studies informs the latter. I desired to study political science from my fourth year in secondary school after a National Youth Service Corps member, who taught us government, first mentioned it. I read political science from a first degree to a doctorate and I have no regret. No matter what has happened, the satisfaction of studying in the university the course I desired has this “mental strength” effect that I can hardly describe. You’ll feel the same way, too, if you read the course you love, and this is important for your journey through life. Now, these days nursing, for instance, is considered hot cake, particularly abroad. I submit that, as nurses are ever relevant, so political scientists will continue to be relevant. I shall explain.
If from time immemorial humans have been nursing fellow humans back to health, for that length of time too humans have engaged in politics – classically defined as a way of determining who gets what, when, and how. This means decision-making. Decisions are made in the home and (in deleted) the larger society. Under monarchical or democratic government, allocating resources, for instance, to train more nurses, is the outcome of the decision-making process. As politics happened in ancient societies, so it’s part of modern society. People in authority need those who understand, have information, or have gathered experience in decision-making processes. The former often includes those who have spent time in academic or related institutions researching and acquiring relevant information.
When it’s about decision-making, therefore, those who have expertise and relevant information must always be with those in authority, just as nurses must be with people who need medical attention. Those in authority and the political experts who work with them are influenced to different extents by ancient political thinkers, such as Plato and Aristotle, who could be regarded as the earliest political scientists. The last few centuries have witnessed other political thinkers, such as Niccolo Machiavelli, John Locke, etc. Their thoughts on statecraft, the rule of law, relationship between the ruler and the ruled have influenced generations of statesmen and government functionaries on either side of the Atlantic.
Regarding those with expertise who are from academic institutions, they were first called “political scientists” in American universities, where scientific methods were first adopted for political research. The Department of Political Science was also created. In the pre-1950s, it was mainly the Department of Politics initially carved out of the Department of History. Even in History, there has been a focus on the study of political history, different forms of government, the constitution, etc. These were moved to the department of politics, which still ran its study basically as a non-science course. By the 1950s, however, researchers began to borrow principles from the physical sciences and applied them to the study of political phenomena. Since governance issue is human issue and the behaviour of humans is more difficult to subject to study, unlike the physical sciences, this has been criticised as impossible by some.
Nonetheless, departments of political science thrived across the United States and it soon spread to other Western nations. These days, human behaviour as it concerns politics is subjected to empirical research and analysis. Margin of error is allowed, but with the application of scientific tools, research into political behaviour has proven replicable across climes. This helps generate data that, for instance, can predict human behaviour regarding elections and voting almost accurately, as seen in the 2016 presidential election that produced President Donald Trump. A team of researchers at Cambridge Analytics, based in the UK, was hired to utilise data on each voter’s political likes and dislikes to Trump’s advantage. These experts deployed reliable data to trigger voters in specific US states, thus spurring them to vote in a certain way.
Cambridge Analytics got it so right that they successfully influenced voters through online contact and this produced the slightest of margins Trump needed to win the 2016 presidential election. The efficiency of this scientific approach was such that it worried the US government, which considered Cambridge Analytics’ work as “election interference” and banned the group. This is an example of how those who are experts in political issues remain relevant in today’s processes, especially in advanced democracies. Meanwhile, governments and politicians in the West who want to leverage on citizens’ political behaviour always work with political scientists who have studied the phenomenon. From the 1950s, political scientists have been using empirical approaches to generate data, which governments and politicians use in decision-making.
For instance, politicians contesting an election use such data to decide what they should say to which audience and at which location. Through data, government and politicians get feedback from citizens, which is part of the complete cycle of the governance process as taught in political science.
These days, government and politicians in public offices in advanced democracies hardly make a decision without being guided by data that political researchers and analysts have broken down into actionable plans for them. Conducting opinion polls is core to this. Generating data from polls is one of the more regular social and political activities in Western nations, during and off election seasons. Political scientists, with their sometimes other specialised skills, are involved. This, therefore, brings me to specialised studies or skills needed in some politically-related jobs and for which political science as a course provides a good backdrop.
When one studies political science, they can add to it other more specialised skills which make them sought-after in diverse fields where political scientists offer in-depth knowledge and expertise. Also, when it comes to administrative positions, people with a political science background have a more comprehensive understanding of how the system works across the landscape. For administration in any field of human endeavour, a graduate of political science remains the best fit. Political science graduates are known to make incredible journalists, biographers, political historians, public affairs analysts, etc. Many take other professional courses and end up in any profession of their choice. Now, a political science graduate who acquires skills in data analysis, coding, programming, etc., is comparable to a graduate of geography who goes further to acquire specialised skills and becomes a specialist in diverse environmental issues.
Such specialised skills make them relevant to government, public and private institutions, politicians, NGOs that engage in political lobbying, etc. In advanced democracies, political scientists who specialise in some fields, such as lobbying, polling, etc., have a market. Why? Particularly with polling, government and everything politics are run on hard data. Political scientists are valued, unlike Third World nations, where politicians tell political scientists that what they study in classrooms doesn’t apply in the field. We know this is because money negatively skews much of electoral activities here, so the expertise of political scientists is least engaged.
The foregoing is to state that as advanced nations seek nurses from Africa, so can a political science graduate who picks up more specialised skills be sought after. As long as humans conduct their affairs through a constituted authority that makes decisions, those who have expert knowledge of human behaviour in this aspect will continue to be relevant. Political scientists have already made meaningful contributions to political processes, national and international institutions, as well as diplomacy. Scholars such as Max Weber, Robert Dahl, and Hans Morgenthau have earned respect and brought accolades to this field of study. One consequence is that related fields in which political scientists are useful are now more diverse than before. So, a Nigerian political science graduate who learns and relearns by acquiring additional specialised skills will certainly find a space for themselves here and across the world.
Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).Thus the article Like nursing, political science is hot cake
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