D. Lasswell says that Political Science is a policy science. Policy means a line of action, chosen in awareness of die future and of its consequences. It is a choice between two alternative courses of action made on the basis of social good. Lasswell writes, “Policy awareness implies the mobilisation of knowledge, whether of trend or of condition that illuminates the shape of things to come.”
In traditional societies, politics is static, bound down with custom and routine of life. Therefore, in such societies, there is no change, and no development, and Political Science does not really exist in such societies, for there are no alternatives; yet they suffer from the consequences of their traditional ways of life. In the developed or advanced countries, where change is the law of life, social development is consciously planned In such a society, Political Science becomes a future-oriented intellectual activity. It studies change and development It even aims at anticipating changes and developments, political and other, in one’s own as well as in foreign countries. It thus becomes a policy science.
It is particularly so in the modem age of science and high technology, which are transforming every aspect and every thing in human life, society, culture and politics. Political Science has to be a problem-solving science, anticipating events and their immediate and future consequences. The crucial point is”, writes Harold Lasswell, “that man is taking all evolution, into his hands whether his evolution as a species, the planned introduction of novel forms of life, or the evolutionary future of cosmos. The circuiting of events through the internal processes of man and other higher forms of life is the policy-making process through which evolution can be affected. Given a potentiality of this kind, political science comes to play a crucial role in the clarification of goals and strategies within the decision process, not only for man, not only for such developed forms of life as are created or discovered, but for the universe as a whole.”12 Government is the art of anticipation, particularly in the modem age when every government, State and nation stands in a
13 Harold D Lasswell. The Future of Political Science, p. 221.
gladiator-like posture against almost every other government, State and nation of the world. But anticipation requires intelligence. It needs to gather information not only about other States, and nations, or about the intentions and capabilities of actual and potential allies and enemies, but also about detecting subversive activities at home and in other countries. Political Science aims at studying and analysing these situations and tendencies in the world.