What Is Politics?
Politics is about making agreements that allow people to live together in groups like tribes, cities and countries. It involves promoting ideas among people, negotiating with other political subjects, making laws and exercising internal and external force against adversaries. Politics can be studied in universities as political science, public affairs, government or political studies.
It is important to understand that there are many different ways of understanding what politics is. Some definitions are very narrow while others are much broader. It is useful to think of these various definitions as existing on a spectrum, from narrow to broad understandings of politics. The goal of this article is to introduce you to these distinct definitions of politics and discuss the broader implications that they have for understanding how politics works in the world today.
Some define politics quite narrowly as that which concerns the state. This includes the state’s permanent institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and ensure security. It also includes politicians who are elected to run the state. This definition captures a significant amount of what most people think of when they think of politics, but it excludes a lot of other activities, actors and places that are involved in politics.
Other scholars take a broader approach to politics that considers all sorts of activities, actors and spaces as part of the political realm. This includes everything from global economic policies, international treaties and wars to local city council votes, Supreme Court nominations and voting behavior of citizens. This broader definition of politics can be difficult to apply, but it allows us to see how a whole range of activities are political.
Regardless of how we define politics, it is clear that there are a number of core features that are necessary for all forms of politics. These include a sense of shared power, the existence of competition and conflict, the allocation of resources and the exercise of force. Politics has always existed as long as humans have faced scarcity and had different beliefs and preferences, and it will continue to exist so long as these conditions persist.
A third feature of politics is that it takes place at different levels of social organisation, from clans and tribes to cities, companies and sovereign states. This variation affects how politicians feel pressure from constituents, as well as the extent to which they are concerned with national versus local policies. In democracies, for example, the variety of electoral systems can make politicians worry more about their next election or whether they will be re-elected and less about the long-term reputation of their party or their country. The existence of organised political parties can also extend these time horizons, as members are committed to promoting their party’s position on a wide range of issues.
All of these features of politics, combined with the various methods that are used to promote or restrict power, can result in the petty corruption and petty brawls that erupt so often during parliamentary sessions in many parts of the world. These events may lead people to lose faith in politicians and to conclude that politics is not a worthwhile endeavour.
Politics is about making agreements that allow people to live together in groups like tribes, cities and countries. It involves promoting ideas among people, negotiating with other political subjects, making laws and exercising internal and external force against adversaries. Politics can be studied in universities as political science, public affairs, government or political studies. It is important to understand that there are many different ways of understanding what politics is. Some definitions are very narrow while others are much broader. It is useful to think of these various definitions as existing on a spectrum, from narrow to broad understandings of politics. The goal of this article is to introduce you to these distinct definitions of politics and discuss the broader implications that they have for understanding how politics works in the world today. Some define politics quite narrowly as that which concerns the state. This includes the state’s permanent institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and ensure security. It also includes politicians who are elected to run the state. This definition captures a significant amount of what most people think of when they think of politics, but it excludes a lot of other activities, actors and places that are involved in politics. Other scholars take a broader approach to politics that considers all sorts of activities, actors and spaces as part of the political realm. This includes everything from global economic policies, international treaties and wars to local city council votes, Supreme Court nominations and voting behavior of citizens. This broader definition of politics can be difficult to apply, but it allows us to see how a whole range of activities are political. Regardless of how we define politics, it is clear that there are a number of core features that are necessary for all forms of politics. These include a sense of shared power, the existence of competition and conflict, the allocation of resources and the exercise of force. Politics has always existed as long as humans have faced scarcity and had different beliefs and preferences, and it will continue to exist so long as these conditions persist. A third feature of politics is that it takes place at different levels of social organisation, from clans and tribes to cities, companies and sovereign states. This variation affects how politicians feel pressure from constituents, as well as the extent to which they are concerned with national versus local policies. In democracies, for example, the variety of electoral systems can make politicians worry more about their next election or whether they will be re-elected and less about the long-term reputation of their party or their country. The existence of organised political parties can also extend these time horizons, as members are committed to promoting their party’s position on a wide range of issues. All of these features of politics, combined with the various methods that are used to promote or restrict power, can result in the petty corruption and petty brawls that erupt so often during parliamentary sessions in many parts of the world. These events may lead people to lose faith in politicians and to conclude that politics is not a worthwhile endeavour.