What is Politics?An Introduction

Learning Objectives

To define the features of politics

To learn how politics has been understood by various thinkers and traditions

Defining politics 1

Politics, in its broadest sense, is the activity through which people make, preserve, and amend the general rules under which they live... Politics is thus inextricably linked to the phenomena of conflict and cooperation.

- Heywood, Politics (2007: 4)

Different views of politics

Politics as the art of government Politics as public affairs Politics as compromise and

consensus Politics as power and the

distribution of resources

Politics as the art of government

Derived from polis (Greek city-state) ‘what concerns the state’/to study government/to

study the exercise of authority ‘authoritative allocation of values’ (David Easton,

1979, 1981); associate with ‘policy’ Politics takes place within a polity, a system of

social organization centred upon the machinery of government.

Politics as the art of government

‘political’ vs. ‘nonpolitical’ the phenomena of anti-politics Niccolo Machiavelli (The Prince, 1531)

developed a realistic account of politics (‘realpolitik’)

‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ (Lord Acton).

Politics as public affairs

Public (the state: apparatus of government; politics, commerce, work, art, culture, and so on)

Private (civil society: autonomous bodies, businesses, trade unions, clubs, families, and so on; family and domestic life)

Politics as compromise and consensus ‘that solution to the problem of order which

chooses conciliation rather than violence and coercion’ (Crick, In Defence of Politcs,1962)

‘consensus politics’

Politics as power

Power, in its broadest sense, is the ability to achieve a desired outcome or the ‘power to’ do something.

In politics, power is usually thought of as a relationship:- the ability to influence the behavior of others in a manner not of their choosing; or

- the ability to punish or reward (force or manipulation)

Politics as power

Politics is, in essence, power: the ability to achieve a desired outcome, through whatever means.

Politics is the struggle over scarce resources, and power is the means through which this struggle is conducted (Harold Laswell, Politics: Who Gets What, When, How?, 1936).

Advocates include feminists and Marxists

Politics as power... ‘Faces’ of power

Power as decision-making Power as agenda-setting Power as thought control

Points of Discussion:

Why has politics so often carried negative associations?

How could you defend politics as a worthwhile and ennobling activity?

Source: Heywood, A. 2007. Politics 4th Ed. New York: Palgrave