Article: Political Sociology, Political Science and "rational choice"

Abstract

This lecture seeks to specify the characteristic focus of a political science, as opposed to the idea of a Political Science and its pretension of autonomy and of the perspective of a "rational choice", as a singularly important effort of abstract and general theorization. It is claimed that, despite the fact that there is a conventional view that seeks to relate the political phenomena to the levei of the State, both the appropriate definition of politics and the explanation of political phenomena, as well as the substantive or theoretical problems with the implementation and operation of democracy, refer to the social context, thus making "political science" and "political sociology" synonyms.