noun
: a social science concerned chiefly with the description and analysis of political and especially governmental institutions and processes and making use of factual material and methods selected from other social sciences (as sociology, psychology, economics, and history) : the study of the phenomena of politics : a science dealing with the political rather than the social, ethical, or economic relations of man : a field of inquiry devoted to an analysis of power in society — compare comparative government , constitutional law , international relations , political theory 2, politics 8b, public administration