What Is Politics?
Politics is the process of manoeuvring to assert one’s interests in public life. Politics takes place on all sorts of social levels from clans and tribes in traditional societies, through local government in modern cities and countries, to corporations and institutions, up to sovereign states. People participate in politics by promoting their own ideas and competing for power through elections, which are competitions between different political parties, often with the aim of changing laws and selecting leaders. Politics may also involve a range of methods to compete, including corruption, intimidation and warfare.
Niccolo Machiavelli’s 1532 book The Prince argued that politics is first and foremost about getting and keeping power. Thomas Hobbes’ 1651 work Leviathan posited that humans need to give up some of their rights in order to receive protection from the state, which is politics. Other political philosophers have argued that politics is about the management of conflict and the balance between cooperation and coercion, while others have viewed politics as more like a game or a struggle for resources.
The world is divided territorially into 190 countries, each with a national government that claims sovereignty over its territory and seeks to compel obedience from its citizens. Most of these have a system of democracy, where people vote for politicians and they are then entrusted to make the political decisions for that country. In the United States, officials are elected at the federal, state and local level. The two main political parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, although other politicians run as independents or for other parties.
In democracies, politicians are expected to respond to constituent pressures, but the way they feel these pressures varies. For example, in some countries, it is common for politicians to be concerned about re-election while in others, such as the US, they are more focused on building their longer-term reputation. Different electoral systems also shape politics, for example, in a system where politicians represent the whole country (as in Israel or the Netherlands), the focus of politics will be more on national policy. In contrast, in a system where politicians are elected to specific geographic locations, as in the US House of Representatives, the focus will be on local issues.
The scope of politics extends beyond legislative votes and Supreme Court nominations to include the ways in which we manage our daily lives, our workplaces, schools, and churches. But what does this broadened definition of politics look like? We will explore the various factors that influence and constrain political outcomes and consider what implications this has for our understanding of how to make politics better. In doing so, we will look at how economic and social considerations can be important for the success of political outcomes. We will also examine the relationship between these factors and the way in which we think about and discuss political issues. This will be a challenging, but also an exciting, exploration.
Politics is the process of manoeuvring to assert one’s interests in public life. Politics takes place on all sorts of social levels from clans and tribes in traditional societies, through local government in modern cities and countries, to corporations and institutions, up to sovereign states. People participate in politics by promoting their own ideas and competing for power through elections, which are competitions between different political parties, often with the aim of changing laws and selecting leaders. Politics may also involve a range of methods to compete, including corruption, intimidation and warfare. Niccolo Machiavelli’s 1532 book The Prince argued that politics is first and foremost about getting and keeping power. Thomas Hobbes’ 1651 work Leviathan posited that humans need to give up some of their rights in order to receive protection from the state, which is politics. Other political philosophers have argued that politics is about the management of conflict and the balance between cooperation and coercion, while others have viewed politics as more like a game or a struggle for resources. The world is divided territorially into 190 countries, each with a national government that claims sovereignty over its territory and seeks to compel obedience from its citizens. Most of these have a system of democracy, where people vote for politicians and they are then entrusted to make the political decisions for that country. In the United States, officials are elected at the federal, state and local level. The two main political parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, although other politicians run as independents or for other parties. In democracies, politicians are expected to respond to constituent pressures, but the way they feel these pressures varies. For example, in some countries, it is common for politicians to be concerned about re-election while in others, such as the US, they are more focused on building their longer-term reputation. Different electoral systems also shape politics, for example, in a system where politicians represent the whole country (as in Israel or the Netherlands), the focus of politics will be more on national policy. In contrast, in a system where politicians are elected to specific geographic locations, as in the US House of Representatives, the focus will be on local issues. The scope of politics extends beyond legislative votes and Supreme Court nominations to include the ways in which we manage our daily lives, our workplaces, schools, and churches. But what does this broadened definition of politics look like? We will explore the various factors that influence and constrain political outcomes and consider what implications this has for our understanding of how to make politics better. In doing so, we will look at how economic and social considerations can be important for the success of political outcomes. We will also examine the relationship between these factors and the way in which we think about and discuss political issues. This will be a challenging, but also an exciting, exploration.