What Is Politics?
Politics is the way people manage and allocate scarce resources and precious rights, privileges and responsibilities. People do politics at many levels of society, from family, to local governments and companies up to nation states. They do it through a variety of means, including promotion of views and ideas, negotiating with and imposing limits on others, making laws and using internal and external force. Politics has existed as long as humans have faced scarcity, differing beliefs and preferences and had to resolve these differences while allocating resources.
People do politics by electing officials to govern them and by deciding how those elected should spend their time and resources. In the United States, for example, people exercise politics through a democratic process, voting to choose their representatives and senators in Congress from districts defined by state lines. They also vote to approve or reject legislation passed by Congress. If a majority of voters approve a bill, it becomes law. If a majority of voters reject it, the bill dies. The President has the power to veto any bill passed by Congress and can only be overridden by two-thirds of the members of both houses of Congress.
Aristotle and Plato were two of the earliest political philosophers who wrote about politics. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in his 1532 book The Prince that the main goal of a politician is to acquire and hold power. In the 1800s John Stuart Mill developed a liberal idea of politics, that there are some things that are too important to be left to politicians.
In modern times people in most countries form political parties to put forward their ideas and compete for political office. In a party they usually agree to take the same position on many issues and to support the same changes to the law and leaders. The most common parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. In addition, there are other parties and independents.
Many people study politics at university level and go on to work in government, business, finance and human resources. Some of them work for supranational institutions like the United Nations, World Trade Organisation and World Bank. Others work for charities and pressure groups.
Some people suggest that if you stretch the term “politics” too far, it loses its meaning. This concern is valid. However, there are a number of definitions of politics which attempt to broaden the scope of the term without diluting it too much. Some of them are discussed below.
Politics is the way people manage and allocate scarce resources and precious rights, privileges and responsibilities. People do politics at many levels of society, from family, to local governments and companies up to nation states. They do it through a variety of means, including promotion of views and ideas, negotiating with and imposing limits on others, making laws and using internal and external force. Politics has existed as long as humans have faced scarcity, differing beliefs and preferences and had to resolve these differences while allocating resources. People do politics by electing officials to govern them and by deciding how those elected should spend their time and resources. In the United States, for example, people exercise politics through a democratic process, voting to choose their representatives and senators in Congress from districts defined by state lines. They also vote to approve or reject legislation passed by Congress. If a majority of voters approve a bill, it becomes law. If a majority of voters reject it, the bill dies. The President has the power to veto any bill passed by Congress and can only be overridden by two-thirds of the members of both houses of Congress. Aristotle and Plato were two of the earliest political philosophers who wrote about politics. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in his 1532 book The Prince that the main goal of a politician is to acquire and hold power. In the 1800s John Stuart Mill developed a liberal idea of politics, that there are some things that are too important to be left to politicians. In modern times people in most countries form political parties to put forward their ideas and compete for political office. In a party they usually agree to take the same position on many issues and to support the same changes to the law and leaders. The most common parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. In addition, there are other parties and independents. Many people study politics at university level and go on to work in government, business, finance and human resources. Some of them work for supranational institutions like the United Nations, World Trade Organisation and World Bank. Others work for charities and pressure groups. Some people suggest that if you stretch the term “politics” too far, it loses its meaning. This concern is valid. However, there are a number of definitions of politics which attempt to broaden the scope of the term without diluting it too much. Some of them are discussed below.