Prior to Plato, the main commentary on politics came from poets, historians, and famous playwrights of the day.
[4] At that point in time, political science was the process of understanding the impact of governing bodies and how rulers chose to enforce laws, as well as the history of specific countries as a whole.
[5] Nearly a thousand years elapsed, from the foundation of the city of Rome in 753 BC to the fall of the Western Roman Empire or the beginning of the Middle Ages.
[6] The Arthashastra is a treatise of political thought which discusses international relations, war strategies, and fiscal policies in addition to other subjects.
[7][8] Looking back at the predecessors of ancient India's politics leads to three of the four Vedas of Hinduism, as well as the Mahabharata and Pali Canon.
[2] In China, despite common belief, Confucianism (also known as Ruism) and Taoism are known as religions, but are also core political philosophies.
These political philosophies, in addition to Legalism and Mohism, originated from Ancient China during the Spring and Autumn period.
This period in China's history was a Golden Age of Chinese philosophy, as it gave way to many different ideas which were discussed freely.
During the Imperial Period, Confucianism modified with the times (being heavily influenced by Legalism) and dominated Chinese political philosophy.
Arabia later moved from Aristotle's ideology of political science, shifting to focus on Plato's work titled Republic.
[10] Evidence of political analysis in medieval Persia can be seen in works like the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and Ferdowsi's Shahnameh.
In his treatise, The Prince, Machiavelli posits a realist viewpoint, arguing that even evil means should be considered if they help to acquire and maintain a ruler's state.
John Locke, on the other hand, who gave us Two Treatises of Government and who did not believe in the divine right of kings either, sided with Aquinas and stood against both Machiavelli and Hobbes by accepting Aristotle's dictum that man seeks to be happy in a state of social harmony as a social animal.
Unlike Aquinas' preponderant view on the salvation of the soul from original sin, Locke believed man comes into this world with a mind that is basically a tabula rasa.
According to Locke, an absolute ruler as proposed by Hobbes is unnecessary, for natural law is based on reason and equality, seeking peace and survival for man.
[14] Other important figures in American politics who participated in the Enlightenment were Benjamin Franklin, George Mason, and Thomas Jefferson.
The motto had been coined by the Oxford professor Edward Augustus Freeman, and was enshrined on the wall of the seminar room at Johns Hopkins University where the first large-scale training of America and political scientists began.
The idea appeared in sociology and other social sciences but David Easton specified how it could be best applied to behavioral research on politics.
[24] Canadian universities until the 1950s were led by British trained scholars for whom political science was not a high priority.
American impulses toward behavioralism have made the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) is a unifying force.