In Franz Oppenheimer's work, The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically explains that there are two ways in which wealth is acquired. These two ways are either economically (through labor and trade) or politically (through violent coercion). Certain Austrian economists also view politics as the "art of ruling". However these views are not only inaccurate, but fail to see the overall study of politics as the foundation of law and human interaction.
The reader should not get the idea that economics has no part in political science. Economics is the very foundation upon which political science rests; along with the science of ethics. Unlike economics however, the foundation of political science does not concern itself primarily with the allocation of scarce resources. Instead politics is really the science of how society organizes itself among competing and cooperating groups. All-in-all, political science is more about how rules are made, rather than how to rule society.
The primary source of rule making is ideas. As Steven Kinsella and Murray Rothbard stated, ideas are not scarce resources. Rules are ideas which create scarcity by restricting which actions are and are not permissible for those which exist in an organization. An organization may be large (like society) or small (like a family). The primary subject of economics is how individuals act in a world of scarce resources and how resources are allocated amongst those individuals at the various stages of production. To state differently, economics deals with the means of allocating limited resources so as to fulfill the subjective wants of individuals. Political science deals with how rules are developed by individuals to restrict the actions of other individuals and/or themselves which they deem to be against their interest. How these rules effect the economic organization of society is the primary subject of a mixed branch of science known as political economy.
Rules can either be developed voluntary amongst individuals acting on behalf of their own self interest or through violent coercion on the part of some individuals hoping to impose their will on other individuals. Seeing how political science has more to deal with how rules are made rather than the traditional approach which attempts to discover the cause and effect of those rules; it will hopefully add to the debate between those favoring a voluntary society and those who feel the need to have some form of government.
Since economic action is the ground work from which political action springs up, it should come to no surprise that political science will use several economic terms and concepts to explain the rule making process. This work will mostly draw from the Austrian School of Economics, focusing on the theories of Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, Hoppe, Benson and Klein. Others writers of importance are Boetie, Bastiat, Spooner, Locke and Madison.
What is Political Action? by Michael Richards is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
