"Political Science" versus "Politics"

I feel inclined to clarify a common misunderstanding among the general public at large: there is a distinction between the academic discipline of Political Science, on the one hand, and the practice of politics (including political journalism, the formulation of political opinions, and political party affiliation), on the other hand. Political Science, according to Wikipedia:

is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. It is often described as the study of politics defined as "who gets what, when and how". Political science has several subfields, including: political theory, public policy, national politics, international relations, and comparative politics.

Political science is methodologically diverse. Approaches to the discipline include classical political philosophy, interpretivism, structuralism, and behavioralism, realism, pluralism, and institutionalism. Political science, as one of the social sciences, uses methods and techniques that relate to the kinds of inquiries sought: primary sources such as historical documents and official records, secondary sources such as scholarly journal articles, survey research, statistical analysis, case studies and model building.

This is not to say that political science is completely removed from everyday political discussions, writings, opinions; but it should be understood that a scientific approach to political analysis should, in theory, be void of opinion and consist primarily of objective analysis of data. Of course, subjectivism naturally has a tendency to permeate even the finest analyses of the social sciences, but even such analyses are a far cry from common political opinionating under the guise of “political science”.

This blog will consist of both my own political commentary, which is largely subjective (but nonetheless, rooted in factual data and, I like to think, reality); and also a political analysis of a more scientific nature. If the latter, I will clearly indicate sources and link to data.