Study of International Relations and Political Science by Using “Theory”

Abstract

In this research paper the author is going to answer the question, that intrigues many researchers of international relations and political science – is it possible to build a grand theory explaining actions and behaviors of political, and international, entities?

International relations are distinguished from other disciplines of science by its special character: they are polyarchic, plural, complex and impulsive (Pietraś, 1997, pp. 12-14). .is is why we find here, exceptional in contrary to other, more mature disciplines, diversity of opinions and answers to the question – in what way international relations shall be build? Searching for the right answer the researchers of international relations have to cross borders of many disciplines, also using research methods of sociologists, historians, economists, lawyers, psychologists and anthropologists. There is a similar problem with political science, as the political matter is widely interpreted and, depending on the researcher and the analyzed political system, its scope is wide as when using so called largo sense in the totalitarian states, where even the choice of school for a child has a political character or as when using so called strict sense in the democratic systems (Skarżyńska, 2005, p. 149). The article is also a search for the answer to the above question by using concepts, conceptions and categories that can be found in other social sciences, mostly sociology and political science. It shall be mentioned that in the study of international relations, as in political science, we also have a very high influence of the value factor. Due to that reason it will be hard for the researcher, no matter how confidently he will try, to get rid of his personal judgment and personal system of values. Especially high influence has culture (or cultures) connected with the specific geographical region (cultural), which through political socialization, i.e. defines current perfect type of personality (Szczepański, 1970, pp. 121–138) – different for the western culture, different for the eastern orthodox and different for the Islam.