• Korea and Global Affairs
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.243-270
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• 2017

The purposes of this paper are twofold: First, to discuss ways and limits of studying politics scientifically; second, to examine group theories to the study of political science. To answer the first question, I examine philosophy of science, methods of scientific research, and limits of scientific study of politics. As a subject matter itself, political science involves the study of human beings and the discovery of explanations for the political behavior that they exhibit. This discovery of regularities of behavior in politics inevitably requires that human beings act consistently or discoverable manner. I argue that the best way of studying politics as much as possible is to combine traditional and scientific approaches depending upon issues, The second section of this paper will examine one of important middle-range theory of politics; group theories (approaches). Examining this will show strength and limits of studying politics scientifically. The group approaches examine the importance of role that people hold in the political system as well as the relationship between the action of collective group and its impact on the political behavior. Overall, the group approaches tend to deal with individuals in specific societal contexts and with varying distributions of power between the actors. This group approaches are premised on the belief that political activity involves more than just one individual, political activity occurs instead through individual actors in particular settings. I argued that group theories have some explanatory power and descriptive richness, though it has limitations.