O przedmiocie badań politologii. Czy możliwa jest ogólna teoria polityki?
On the subject of the study of political sciences. Is a general theory of politics possible?

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses the issue of the identity of the subject of political sciences. It begins with an assertion that the limits of politics and of the political are impossible to set out in a manner both unambiguous and giving rise to no major controversies. As a result, forming an uniform, general theory of politics is impossible. The authors consider the impact of this fact on the self-identification of the political sciences and on attempts to delineate the subjective scope of analyses performed using the tools and approach of the discipline, as well as on the strategies of building a theory on the grounds thereof. The issue of a delineation of the field for an analysis performed using the tools and approach of political sciences and based on their subject is also juxtaposed with analogous issues in other social sciences (economics, sociology and psychology) and the ways in which these sciences cope with them. The article goes on to dwell on the issues of creating theoretical generalisation in political sciences and passing to successive levels of a theory’s generality. The deductive strategy for building a general theory is subjected to criticism. The authors take note, however, that the inductive strategy does fulfil the hopes invested in it. Relations between a political sciences’ theory and political practice are also subjected to scrutiny, as are the objectives that the science of politics sets out for itself. In their conclusion, the authors articulate a set of methodological directives which, in their opinion, provide the opportunity to resolve the impasse existing hitherto in identifying the subject of political sciences and in building a general theory of politics.

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