The Science of Politics and Power To reinforce the science of politics as an academic discipline, certain phenomena such as the proliferation of democratic systems, political parties and the expansion of collective media, have contributed. These facts led to an increase in studies on these subjects, which also led to a greater proliferation of the science of politics and its scholars, who, through the Western philosophical political tradition, continued to question the classics. This phenomenon culminates with the foundation of the International Political Science Association (IPSA-AISP), of Franco-American origin, post-war association, where political scientists discussed their positions, which boosted the creation of national academic organizations in the area worldwide.

In this way, the development of the epistemic community of political scientists is a historical phenomenon arising from war and international politics. Portugal also made its way, creating the Portuguese Political Science Association and acquires its absolute majority when it planned to host the 26th World Congress of Political Science that should have been held in Lisbon this year, 2020, dedicated to the theme: New Nationalisms in an Open World. We barely imagined that its postponement to the year 2021 would be caused by the current global health crisis.

The Portuguese Journal of Political Science was born in 2010 within the scope of this majority of the community of scholars of the phenomena of power. It is now common sense that political science or political analysis is the study of politics - of political systems, organizations and political processes. Political scientists can study institutions or other organizations whose structures and processes of action approach or constitute a government, in complexity and interconnection.

Despite this commonly accepted concept, at the beginning, there was a discussion within the political science about its object of study, which, for some, was concentrated on the State and, for others, on power. The first position restricts the object of study of political science; while the second enlarges it. The position of most political scientists today is this broader view, that the object of study of political science, is power.

Thus, currently, the science of politics welcomes several perspectives that intertwine in order to constitute a wide field of studies and research. In this way, political science research about the theory and practice of politics. Describes and analyses political systems and political behaviour. It covers several fields, such as political theory and philosophy, political systems, political parties, political elites, ideology, game theory, political economy, geopolitics, political geography, public policy analysis, comparative politics, the analysis of foreign relations, politics and international law, studies of public administration and government, the legislative process, public law (such as constitutional law) and others that involve the activity of political communities and, of course, international relations still that it will, like other subfields, gain disciplinary autonomy.

However, it is also important to consider that there are several ways of approaching the object of study of this science that can be synthesized mainly in three. On the one hand, it can be from the point of view of descriptive politics, or empirical: in this line, researchers choose for empirical analysis of political reality. In this option of political analysis, the collection of data that is true to reality is of central importance, thus distinguishing itself from normative theories. On the other hand, it can set the focus on comparative politics, fundamental in political science, this approach to research seeks, through comparisons between different socio-historical realities, more general elements of the political reality of societies. Also, it is necessary to mediate the empirical data with the theory, but this time, through comparison, we try to arrive at generalizable elements of political reality and to question hypotheses or theories conceived about a single delimited reality. Finally, from the point of view of political theory, an approach in which researchers can start from empirical data, but articulate them with political theory itself to understand and explain reality, considering the simple description of reality as presented as insufficient. Therefore, having in mind that the science of politics always reflects the study of power, this issue was organized around the different perspectives that its study may imply.

The first part entitled New Powers includes a set of three articles that came to us in English. Either a first, which looks at the Trump administration, or the analysis of relations between China and Pakistan under the Belt and Road Initiative or finally, a third which looks at the situation in Mozambique. All represent transfigured powers, new powers that assert themselves with other discourses that create differentiated orders that change the political world and lack analysis and problematization.

In the second part, gathered under the title of Analyses on Power , a first article is particularly important to us because it questions the links between the science of politics and the variations that democracy has suffered that has led us to multiple analyses of a “crisis” of democracy. A second article explores, perhaps consequently, the question of institutional balance, rehearsing on the decision models that are manifested.

Other Power Models constitute the third part of the journal. Other forms of power, no less important, impact the life of the collective. An article that comes to us from Peru discusses the administrative management capacity of counties in an interesting comparative study. And, albeit historically and a little sideways, an analysis of the Rwanda genocide from the Copenhagen School theories on security, introduces the link between science and power, which are the prime target of the science of politics.

In this issue, there was still space for the reviews that our young interns prepared, that's how Diogo Nascimento, Diogo Moreira and Ana Rita Dias, bring us the recent books, respectively: The Right Side of the History by Shapiro, A Era dos Muros by T. Marshall and A Estranha Morte da Europa by D. Murray, all with the mark of today.

As we have always recognized, PJPS owes a set of support contributions and in this issue it is the contribution of the PhD student, Patrícia Tomás, that we must highlight. Finally, our cover, which, as always, is projected in street art, where we read culturally part of the political reading about the world, is dedicated to a mural with the suggestive title of “Intensive Care”, intensive care that the world needs. We assumed, then, that this image represented a relationship with environmental concerns and global resource management, but we barely imagined that intensive care would prove to be much more complex in face of the recent public health crisis due to the endemic spread of the new corona virus, called SARS-CoV-2, which the world health organization has come to identify as COVID-19, declaring the pandemic situation given its worldwide progression. Reason why, the next issue of the journal will be dedicated to the theme. We wish you a good and useful reading.