Political science and its methods: A comparison among the programs of social sciences in Colombia

Abstract

Resolution 466 of 2007, issued by the Ministry of National Education, represents an unprecedented avatar institutionalization of political science in Colombia. However, although advances in defining the specific quality characteristics and development of programs regard to methodology, fails to establish a clear distinction between social science programs. For this reason, this paper aims to investigate the specificity of the political science discipline from a review of research methods in the undergraduate programs of universities in Bogota. To this effect, the paper is divided into two parts: First, a review of the epistemological discussion on methods of discipline in France and England; and second, a review of the contents and bibliography of the methodology syllabus of social science programs at universities in Bogota. In the end it will show that there are no specific methods of political science but rather generic methods for the social sciences.