What Is Politics?
Politics is the activity of people making agreements about how to live together in groups such as tribes, towns, cities, and countries. These agreements are called laws and regulations and the people who make them are politicians. Politics is also about the way in which power is distributed among people in the group. Power is the ability to influence or control other people in the group. Politics is about the distribution of resources, rights and privileges, and access to authority in society.
The word politics comes from the Greek
Political Science is the study of government and politics at the local, state, national, and international levels. There are many subfields of political science, including governmental theory and policy analysis, international relations, comparative politics, and democratization. There is even a subfield of anthropology called Political Anthropology, which studies how human beings interact with their governments and each other in the context of cultural dynamics.
Some political scientists define politics quite narrowly as that which concerns the state, meaning the institutions of the state — the permanent institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and ensure security, and are run by people who have been elected to do so. In democracies, these people are members of political parties. In the United States, for example, the two major political parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, but there are other factions within each.
Other scholars define politics more broadly as activities that affect the interests of a given community in some way. These might include social movements like anti-war or anti-globalization protests, boycott campaigns such as the global boycott of Nike or the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, or other activities that seek to promote the well-being of a particular group or individual over that of others.
There is much debate about whether these more broad definitions of politics are legitimate. Some critics say they are too vague and do not give sufficient weight to the fact that people’s daily lives are affected by politics in a variety of ways, not just in elections for Congress or the president.
A more common criticism is that these broader definitions of politics overlook the fact that the politics of most modern societies is often a chaotic and painful clash of entrenched interests, in which those with the most resources and persistence can achieve their goals at the expense of others. These are not ideal conditions for a functioning democracy. The framers of the American Constitution went to great lengths to design a system of checks and balances to limit the power of any one branch of the federal government, but in practice it is often difficult to avoid such clashes.
Politics is the activity of people making agreements about how to live together in groups such as tribes, towns, cities, and countries. These agreements are called laws and regulations and the people who make them are politicians. Politics is also about the way in which power is distributed among people in the group. Power is the ability to influence or control other people in the group. Politics is about the distribution of resources, rights and privileges, and access to authority in society. The word politics comes from the Greek (polityk), meaning “affairs of the city.” It is an ancient concept that was first developed by the Roman philosophers Cicero and Publius Cornelius Scipio, although its roots are in Ancient Egyptian hierarchical society. Politics has been central to the development of human societies, a topic that is still studied today. Political Science is the study of government and politics at the local, state, national, and international levels. There are many subfields of political science, including governmental theory and policy analysis, international relations, comparative politics, and democratization. There is even a subfield of anthropology called Political Anthropology, which studies how human beings interact with their governments and each other in the context of cultural dynamics. Some political scientists define politics quite narrowly as that which concerns the state, meaning the institutions of the state — the permanent institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and ensure security, and are run by people who have been elected to do so. In democracies, these people are members of political parties. In the United States, for example, the two major political parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, but there are other factions within each. Other scholars define politics more broadly as activities that affect the interests of a given community in some way. These might include social movements like anti-war or anti-globalization protests, boycott campaigns such as the global boycott of Nike or the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, or other activities that seek to promote the well-being of a particular group or individual over that of others. There is much debate about whether these more broad definitions of politics are legitimate. Some critics say they are too vague and do not give sufficient weight to the fact that people’s daily lives are affected by politics in a variety of ways, not just in elections for Congress or the president. A more common criticism is that these broader definitions of politics overlook the fact that the politics of most modern societies is often a chaotic and painful clash of entrenched interests, in which those with the most resources and persistence can achieve their goals at the expense of others. These are not ideal conditions for a functioning democracy. The framers of the American Constitution went to great lengths to design a system of checks and balances to limit the power of any one branch of the federal government, but in practice it is often difficult to avoid such clashes.