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Introduction and origins
Political Science, called also politology, is a social science focused on analysing political power, its allocation and transfer in decision making, the roles and systems of governance. Although it heavenly draws on different social sciences, political science is distinguished from them due to its focus on power. The contemporary discipline is broad, and it is interested in all the societal, cultural and psychological factors influencing actions of government and power bodies. Politology has some overlaps with the field of political philosophy, and historically they weren't always distinguished. Subfields of political science include international relations, public policy, public administration, comparative politics, political methodology and political economy. Like all sciences, political science includes empirical investigation drawing from methods originating in psychology, social research and cognitive neuroscience.

Interest in the subject matter of political science traces back to ancient times. One of the first recorded analysis of political power is by Aristotle (384–322 BC). Due to his attempt to introduce empirical observation in the study of politics, by many he is perceived as the founder of political science. Some of the other ancient influences include Confucius (551–479 BC) in China, and Kautilya (flourished 300 BC) in India and historic writing by Ibn Khaldūn (1332–1406) in North Africa.

Emerging of the discipline
Term “political science” has existed and been noted throughout 1800, however it didn’t describe a specific discipline. Johnson has put it "politics was not viewed as a distinctive mode of action or even as a clearly defined structural feature of social life: it was continuous with moral conduct and social regulation". It is in 19th century when the creation of university departments and specialised chairs marked the beginning of political science as university discipline. Rapid growth of natural sciences during that time contributed to creation a new social science. In 1903 and 1906 respectively American Political Science Association and the American Political Science Review were founded. In 1872 in France the first school of political science has been established - the École Libre des Sciences Politiques (now the Institut d’Études Politiques). In 1895 London School of Economics and Political Science has formed and the first chair of politics was created at the University of Oxford in 1912. Political science has been a part of curricula in law, economics or philosophy in American universities, but became a distinct taught discipline in 1880 with established a school of political science at Columbia University, New York City. By 1920 most of major universities had departamentu named either politics, government or political science.

History and politics
Political science has been often taught alongside different academic disciplines and single honours politics degrees are less common. For many years history and political science were united disciplines in American colleges and universities. History and politics are still frequently taught together. Joint Honours degree can be found at multiple universities, such as Oxford University or Cambridge University. . Existing critique for such practises is that history is an Important but no longer exlusive analytical technique within political science and politology itself cannot be successfully subsumed by the discipline of history.