The Terms ‘Theory’ And ‘Doctrine’ In Political Science – OpEd

Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirovic

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Political science (politology/politologia) is a general scientific discipline of politics. The term “politics” was most often defined as the art of managing the state (ancient Greek polis – city-state), but it was understood and treated differently as a subject over the course of history.

Initially, political science as a subject was only part of the general history of philosophical thought, but later it gradually became independent in the form of the history of political doctrines, the history of political philosophy or social philosophy, state and/or legal philosophical thought, and even as the history of legal theories, given that the art of managing a state and its citizens is largely based on the application, interpretation, realization, and respect for official legal norms (as well as on the application of unwritten but traditional legal legislation and its socio-moral norms based on which a certain social environment has lived and resolved its interpersonal relations for centuries).

The term “philosophy” in its meaning is sufficiently elaborated and known and essentially boils down to “love of wisdom”, i.e., knowledge or general knowledge (science) about man, i.e., his existence either in this world or the next, as well as the world around him, including a wide range of social and natural phenomena that influence man’s existence. However, the meaning of the terms “theory” and “doctrine” remains in many specific research cases, at least as far as political science is concerned, undefined or, in most cases, unclearly defined or not accepted at some general (global) level.

The term “theory” is of ancient Greek origin and, in a general sense, represents knowledge that is generally accepted as such. However, such knowledge also appears in practice in at least three forms:

1. Theoretical knowledge that is not (or does not need to be) directly related to application in practice;

2. Scientific knowledge, i.e., knowledge obtained through official systems of scientific verification and proof, and which as such becomes formally proven and “generally recognized” as accurate (proven) knowledge (i.e., knowledge of the functioning of a certain phenomenon);