What Is Politics?
Politics is the process by which people in a society choose, sanction and pressure leaders who make laws and policy that affect all citizens. It is also the process by which those who seek power use their skills to acquire it and to manage that power effectively. This can happen at the local, regional and national levels of a state or nation, as well as across international borders. Politics encompasses a wide range of activities and decisions, from the selection of political leaders and the making of law to the allocation of societal resources and access to rights and privileges.
Those who study politics do so because they are fascinated by the way that societies, countries and states operate. They want to understand the rules that govern those nations, how they are created and the dynamics of the internal interactions between politicians and their citizens. Studying politics is also a great career option for those who wish to become politicians, but it is important for those who are interested in this field to remember that politics is not just about legislative votes and Supreme Court nominations. Politics is how we go about solving the big issues that are faced by our world – it’s the way that societies continue to function, how key policies get implemented and how global challenges are addressed.
One of the classic definitions of politics is that it is the authoritative and legitimate struggle for a share of limited or precious resources or of valuable rights and privileges. This is a view that was popularised by the philosophers Plato and Aristotle, with their seminal works The Republic and The Politics respectively. But this view of politics is problematic because it fails to acknowledge that those whose resources are scarce or valuable may feel compelled to act outside the framework of established political institutions if they believe those institutions are failing them. Whether this happens through violent means such as riots or through war, it is still a form of politics.
People often pursue working roles within political parties in order to pursue their own particular ideas of how a country or state should be run. This is known as micropolitics, and it is an important part of the politics that goes on at a local or regional level. It is also a large component of the politics that is found at the international level, with the establishment of intergovernmental organisations and supranational unions such as the United Nations.
The political climate we live in today is one of the most turbulent that has been experienced for a long time. This is because it seems as if the democratic institutions that have been built up over decades are beginning to crumble. From Turkey and Brazil to Hungary and the Philippines, centrist and mainstream political parties have lost ground to more radical challengers on both the left and the right. This trend is also visible in some European states where democracy has been less firmly established.
Politics is the process by which people in a society choose, sanction and pressure leaders who make laws and policy that affect all citizens. It is also the process by which those who seek power use their skills to acquire it and to manage that power effectively. This can happen at the local, regional and national levels of a state or nation, as well as across international borders. Politics encompasses a wide range of activities and decisions, from the selection of political leaders and the making of law to the allocation of societal resources and access to rights and privileges. Those who study politics do so because they are fascinated by the way that societies, countries and states operate. They want to understand the rules that govern those nations, how they are created and the dynamics of the internal interactions between politicians and their citizens. Studying politics is also a great career option for those who wish to become politicians, but it is important for those who are interested in this field to remember that politics is not just about legislative votes and Supreme Court nominations. Politics is how we go about solving the big issues that are faced by our world – it’s the way that societies continue to function, how key policies get implemented and how global challenges are addressed. One of the classic definitions of politics is that it is the authoritative and legitimate struggle for a share of limited or precious resources or of valuable rights and privileges. This is a view that was popularised by the philosophers Plato and Aristotle, with their seminal works The Republic and The Politics respectively. But this view of politics is problematic because it fails to acknowledge that those whose resources are scarce or valuable may feel compelled to act outside the framework of established political institutions if they believe those institutions are failing them. Whether this happens through violent means such as riots or through war, it is still a form of politics. People often pursue working roles within political parties in order to pursue their own particular ideas of how a country or state should be run. This is known as micropolitics, and it is an important part of the politics that goes on at a local or regional level. It is also a large component of the politics that is found at the international level, with the establishment of intergovernmental organisations and supranational unions such as the United Nations. The political climate we live in today is one of the most turbulent that has been experienced for a long time. This is because it seems as if the democratic institutions that have been built up over decades are beginning to crumble. From Turkey and Brazil to Hungary and the Philippines, centrist and mainstream political parties have lost ground to more radical challengers on both the left and the right. This trend is also visible in some European states where democracy has been less firmly established.