Labeling

A common theme running throughout the class has been the ways in which political science as a discipline affects the way we view politics. The common interest of a society does not exist outside of the rules by which we determine that interest. Corruption can be measured in many different ways, all slightly different, all measuring something slightly different. Likewise, development means different things depending on how we choose to measure it. And the lens through which we view conflict, ethnic or otherwise, could even affect how prevalent such conflicts are.

Political science, then, does matter outside of the ivory tower. The world is molded to accept certain explanations as legitimate, whether or not such explanations are the genuine causal factor behind a given phenomenon. For example, the prevalent use of ethnicity as an explanation for why conflicts erupt could actually increase the number of conflicts justified on such terms. If elites frame a conflict in such terms, it is easier for them to mobilize populations against one another, as each population begins to fear the possibility that ethnicity is a salient issue for the other. The societal factors we believe cause conflicts can thus become the causes of conflicts.

By developing his materialist conception of the world and framing history in class terms, Karl Marx affected the way that people in later generations attempted to change their own world. Lenin and the Bolsheviks saw themselves as a vanguard party bringing socialist to Russia. Mao developed his own form of peasant communism in China. Calls for the overthrow of the "capitalist system" are even heard today from time to time. Whether or not the world really functions according to Marxist principles is open to debate, but the belief that it does has affected history and the lives of millions.

The question that was posed as the beginning of the class, then, has a clear answer. Ideas do matter. Ideas mold the way we see the world, and the way we see the worlds affects how we act. Many of these ideas are created in the field of political science.