It was in the middle of the nineteenth century that Political Science as such came into being. It was due to two influences: (i) of Augusta Comets Sociology and (ii) of the formal-legal studies of the German school of Staatslehre or State Theory. Political theorists regarded the study of the State and government as the study of formal-legal institutions.
In this formal Political Science, no attention was paid to such informal political institutions as political parties, pressure groups, or public opinion. This type of Political Science became, for the first time, an academic discipline, taught and studied in the universities of USA, Great Britain, Germany, etc. It was a descriptive, value-free discipline, in which the scholar, usually a university professor, avoided any empirical conclusions.
It was a descriptive science of State, and dealt with such questions as the nature of the State, theory of sovereignty, classification of the various types of States or governments, the three organs of the government and the theory of the separation of powers, the functions and ends of the State and the rights of the individual, etc.
In the USA, this kind of Political Science remained a dominant discipline from about 1880 to about 1920. It was also taught in the British
Universities though mixed with lot of political philosophy of the idealist Hegelian school of Thomas Green and Bernard Bosanquet. Interestingly enough, it was this Political Science of the American-British vintage which was introduced and taught in the universities of the British India and was taught in Pakistani universities down to about 1980.
Pluralist Thinkers:
At the end of the nineteenth century, the monistic theory of State and sovereignty of Bodin, Hobbes and John Austin was challenged by the pluralist theory of State and sovereignty, propounded by such political scientists as Laski, MacIver, Follet, Krabbe, Cole, Hobson and others.