Politics and political science are often used as similar and interchangeable terms. The term politics is understood as a particular social phenomenon as well as a systematic study of that phenomenon. ‘Politics’ was the name of Aristotle’s famous book and he used the term to mean a distinct branch of study.
Similarly Harold J. Laski (An Introduction to Politics and Grammar of Politics) and many other scholars treated politics as a particular subject of study. However, some scholars emphasize a distinction between politics and political science.
According to this view, the term ‘Politics’ refers to the actual process of conflict and cooperation whereas political science refers to the systematic study of the process of politics.
In other words, while politics implies a specific kind of activity, political science is an organised body of knowledge dealing with concepts. We use the concept of politics both as a phenomenon as well as its systematic study keeping in view the need to help students comprehend a wide range of literature in this field as they grow up through higher stages of learning in future.