Since 1950, the objectives of our Association have been ‘to promote the development of political studies and to encourage education and the advancement of learning in the art and science of government and in other branches of the political sciences’. From democracy to dictatorship and local councils to international organisations, Political Studies examines how power is obtained, kept, lost, mobilised, divided, used and abused. It asks who gains and who loses from these processes and why. Politics is studied in theory and in practice, often using scientific methods.