What Is Politics?
Politics is the authoritative and legitimate struggle for limited resources, rights and privileges in the context of government, society and economy. It can be practiced on a wide range of social levels, from clans and tribes of traditional societies, through local governments and institutions up to and including sovereign states. In modern nation states people often form political parties to express their views and contest elections for leadership and changes in law.
Political science scholars are keenly interested in how the processes of politics work – whether they are democratic, undemocratic, open or closed, fair or unfair. They are also interested in the nature of political action, whether it be negotiation with others, lobbying, demonstrating, campaigning or making laws.
Depending on the definition used, politics is usually seen as a process in which people try to maximize their own values and preferences by using the available resources in competition with others and their resources. This has been a major theme of Western political thought from Plato and Aristotle through Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jeremy Bentham, and Immanuel Kant.
The mass of special and general interests in a society is often overwhelming, and to make sense of it, there are several different types of political institutions that help to organize and prioritize them. One of the most important is economic, in which businesses and workers are organized into centralized labor federations that can exert substantial influence on national policymaking, and in which governments can subsidize or protect farmers or encourage or discourage industry.
There are also cultural and normative institutions, such as religion, that affect people’s attitudes toward their role in society. They can influence how and whether they participate in politics, and the types of policies that are made. Those that believe in the divine right of kings to rule, for example, may be less inclined to participate in politics than those who do not.
A more narrow view of politics is that it consists of the institutions of a state, which are the permanent organizations that provide public services, enforce laws and ensure security. These institutions are run by politicians who are elected to do so (at least in democracies). Politicians decide what public services the state should offer, what laws it ought to enforce and what kinds of security it should provide.
Recent studies have questioned this classic definition of politics, showing that in fact the ‘political’ is as much about contestation over ways of framing and narrating policy problems as it is about struggles for distribution. This has important implications for understanding how to make better policy, particularly in the face of inevitable crises that cannot be avoided. For example, a crisis in an economy might lead to the rise of populist political movements that are based on appeals to deep-rooted beliefs and values rather than simply ‘objective’ self-interest. Such a shift might be the key to avoiding future economic disasters. This is the ‘ideational turn’ in the study of politics.
Politics is the authoritative and legitimate struggle for limited resources, rights and privileges in the context of government, society and economy. It can be practiced on a wide range of social levels, from clans and tribes of traditional societies, through local governments and institutions up to and including sovereign states. In modern nation states people often form political parties to express their views and contest elections for leadership and changes in law. Political science scholars are keenly interested in how the processes of politics work – whether they are democratic, undemocratic, open or closed, fair or unfair. They are also interested in the nature of political action, whether it be negotiation with others, lobbying, demonstrating, campaigning or making laws. Depending on the definition used, politics is usually seen as a process in which people try to maximize their own values and preferences by using the available resources in competition with others and their resources. This has been a major theme of Western political thought from Plato and Aristotle through Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jeremy Bentham, and Immanuel Kant. The mass of special and general interests in a society is often overwhelming, and to make sense of it, there are several different types of political institutions that help to organize and prioritize them. One of the most important is economic, in which businesses and workers are organized into centralized labor federations that can exert substantial influence on national policymaking, and in which governments can subsidize or protect farmers or encourage or discourage industry. There are also cultural and normative institutions, such as religion, that affect people’s attitudes toward their role in society. They can influence how and whether they participate in politics, and the types of policies that are made. Those that believe in the divine right of kings to rule, for example, may be less inclined to participate in politics than those who do not. A more narrow view of politics is that it consists of the institutions of a state, which are the permanent organizations that provide public services, enforce laws and ensure security. These institutions are run by politicians who are elected to do so (at least in democracies). Politicians decide what public services the state should offer, what laws it ought to enforce and what kinds of security it should provide. Recent studies have questioned this classic definition of politics, showing that in fact the ‘political’ is as much about contestation over ways of framing and narrating policy problems as it is about struggles for distribution. This has important implications for understanding how to make better policy, particularly in the face of inevitable crises that cannot be avoided. For example, a crisis in an economy might lead to the rise of populist political movements that are based on appeals to deep-rooted beliefs and values rather than simply ‘objective’ self-interest. Such a shift might be the key to avoiding future economic disasters. This is the ‘ideational turn’ in the study of politics.