Practice question · Multiple choice
Why does the choice between a narrow and a broad definition of politics change what a political scientist can study?
Hints
- Ask what a study of domestic decision-making would be, under each definition.
- A definition is a rule about what belongs in the field of view.
Show the answer
A. The definition decides what counts as data, so a narrow one puts household power outside the field
Why
Because a definition fixes the field of view. Under a state-centred definition, a study of who decides how domestic labour is divided is sociology; under a power-centred one it is political science. Nothing about the household changes, only whether the discipline is entitled to look at it, which is exactly the claim behind "the personal is political".
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More questions on Politics, and the Science of It
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