Political Economist

The Differences between Political Science and Economics

When I was in Korea, some of my friends and younger students sometimes asked me why I had chosen to study political science. They wanted to know whether there were special reasons for me to choose that particular area of study in social science. I have been asked the same question since I studied economics in the U.S.

Personally speaking, I studied political science as my undergraduate and graduate major for about 6 years in Seoul. Recently, I am studying economics in New York. Due to this personal experience, I am in a better position to draw big pictures of two major social science research areas.

In this essay, I would like to introduce some similar aspects and major differences between political science and economics for those who are about to choose either of two area of study in social science.

Historically, political science dates back to classical Greek’s philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. They tried to provide us with general principles of and foundations for good commonwealth in their major works.

Compared to political science, the history of modern economics originated from J.M. Keynes’s General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money published in 1939. In his book, Keynes paved the ways for modern macroeconomic analyses of capitalist economy.

Even though, some economic historians argue that the history of economics can be traced back to the date earlier than Keynes’ era, it is widely accepted that before 1939 any economic analysis could been incorporated into other social science disciplines such as politics and sociology. Thus, the origin and history of each study are different from each other.

Secondly, both political science and economics have their own distinctive goals and objectives. While political science has been oriented to offer normative rules and principles for desirable community, economics has limited its roles only for the predictable analysis of economic phenomena. Thus, while political science has normative and idealistic properties, economists usually have circumscribed their roles to mathematical data analysis and policy recommendation.

Admittedly, it is also true that there has been a certain level of convergent tendency in both methodology and area of interest between two studies; if you have chances to take one or two classes in a political science department related with comparative politics and international relation, you would easily find these subfields of political science have been highly influenced by modern economics’ methodology.

Similarly, if you are planning to study macroeconomics for your major area of study in economics, you will also have to delve into the role of government and bureaucracy in the economic development process and public policies. In other words, various political foundations for economic development are one of the most significant areas of study not only in political science but also in economics.

However even when we consider this similarity, there are enough reasons for economics to be called economics, not political science. Most of all, economists are all interested in macroeconomic phenomena and economic indicators such as inflation, unemployment and international trade (deficit) even when they take the role of government and bureaucracy into account. In other words, even when they analyze a particular government’s economic policy, they usually focus on the policy with its economic consequences, not on the party politics or the decision making process in which most political scientists are interested.

Finally, due to these different academic orientations, economics has traditionally developed highly abstract mathematical methodologies for its analysis. Recently, contemporary economists especially those who are influenced by the U.S-dominant academic trend have attempted to incorporate human needs and subjective desires into their mathematical equations.

Compared to recent trends of economics, political science mostly employs logical inference as its main approach. Even though there are various political scientists who are ready to borrow mathematical data analysis from economics, who eagerly use anthropological observations as their powerful methods, these trials are still in their incipient stage.

In sum, both economists and political scientists try to offer scientific analysis of certain social phenomena. However, their methodology and area of interest, not to mention their respective objectives are significantly different from each other. Thus, those who want to learn the history of political philosophy, and want to know how the society as a whole works will surely prefer political science. By the same token, for those who are interested in the dominant roles of economy in society, for those who want to know how the economy grows in historical perspective, I would like to recommend them to choose macroeconomics for their major area of study.