Reflections on the Study of Politics

Thursday, 09 June 2011 10:24

Written by Louie C. Montemar

Last week, at the heart of what we Manileños endearingly refer to as the University Belt, I was browsing for books in one major bookstore. I found time particularly to pore through some pages of what tomes in “Political Science” are available in our popular bookstores to try to confirm a nagging idea-feeling about the quality of available political science textbooks.

By law and CHED regulations, the teaching of Philippine politics and the Constitution is required. Moreover, consider that there were 76,546 college-level students enrolled in social and behavioural sciences in schoolyear 2009-2010 in the country. In the same year, there were 12,506 who graduated in those fields. There is a market out there for political science textbook exists!

I cannot, sad to day, recommend most of those available textbooks. Of the seven that I quickly pored over, I found that only one could be “acceptable” enough. I am not even saying “good” enough. Our leading political scientists out there should review these textbooks which are being consumed by the schoolgoing public, and take steps to do something about the quality of these books, and arrest the proliferation of higher education materials of questionable quality available in the market.

Years ago, to supplement the textbooks I used to use, I wrote an essay for my students in political science. Today, as school starts for most universities where thousands trek to work for their degrees in subjects like political science, public administration, public management, law, and development studies, I rewrite here an excerpt from that piece. I think those interested in politics as a study and a practice should find some interesting points for reflection here...

The thinkers that laid the foundation for what we now know as the "science" of politics argue that there is a natural end towards which all things are moving and changing. For human societies that end is perfection expressed initially with the formation of a POLIS. The polis -- the city-sate -- is supreme among associations, according to Aristotle, for while it grows for the sake of mere life, it exists for the sake of a good life.

But the "good life," what is it?

Aristotle suggests an answer and in the process elevates our field as an endeavor of the gods. Aristotle argues: "In all the arts and sciences the end in view is some good. In the most sovereign of all the arts and sciences--and this is the art and science pf politics--the end in view is the greatest good and the good which is most pursued. The good in the sphere of politics is Justice; and justice consists in what tends to promote the common interest."

Tracing its import from such a perspective, the tradition of political science appears indeed as a profoundly noble one. But of course one can always adopt a colder, calculating, "scientific," or "modern" approach to answering questions about power, which is a central concept in the study of politics, and merely ask, "How is power gained, won, maintained or lost?" Or, in a more actor-centered way, inquire about politics by asking "who gets what, when and how?"

Still, considering all these, we are proud of the heritage of our field. For while it is true that the respectable, lucrative and thus more popular profession of, say, medical or biological science addresses itself to the uplift of the human body, Politics, or what the American academe prefers to call "Political Science," concerns itself with the health of the body politic--the well-being of human collectives.

Hence, let us remind ourselves that as the medical doctor that was Rizal aimed at healing the ails of his mother, the political activist that is Rizal aimed at the grander endeavor of trying to help heal the social cancer afflicting his motherland. And perhaps it isn't often underscored, but Rizal is a hero because of the latter. Hindi bayani si Rizal dahil sa pagmamahal lamang niya sa kanyang ina, subalit, higit sa lahat, dahil sa kanyang pagmamahal sa kanyang inang-bayan.

There really is no better way of putting it. No better way of revving your morale and inspiring the student of politics in you. Ideals have to be invoked. I have to make you hearken to big words--to noble and selfless aims such as Justice. To my mind, anything less would be but relatively petty concerns such as computing things in balance sheets, to reduce human passion and desire for the good life and the common interest to static, pointless figure crunching and mental acrobatics.

It has been said that politics is the art of the possible. Thus I say that political science is about studying and breaching the limits of what is now the possible. If, as some claim, creating a just world is a grand impossibility, I say that is why we have the art and science of politics. Politics as a science--or an art--is not simply about making the mechanisms or dynamics of power work. It is also, and more importantly, about making the mechanisms or dynamics of power work for the sake of a just and good life--a happy life!

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