What is the best way to define politics?
Politics can be defined in various ways such as it is a way of making collective decisions, way of allocation of scarce resources, tool to govern people, the practice of deception and manipulation, an exercise of power, science of government, and so on. Politics, in its broad sense, is the activity through which people create, preserve, and alter the general rules under which they live. Politics is also used as an academic subject for the study that provides a depth study of such activities. Politics is thus connected with both ‘conflicts’ and ‘cooperation’ phenomena. In other words, politics can be defined as the existence of different wants, competing needs, rival opinions, and opposing interest guarantees disagreement about the rules and regulations under which people are living their lives. Normally, people uses politics in the broad term while some people use this word in their daily life. Some people think that history, geography, biology, etc. are the academic subjects and some people think politics without preconceptions. One of the worst things about this word ‘politics’ is that most people refer it similar to ‘dirty’ word because it creates problems, disruptions, and even it is the cause of violence and basis of lie, fraud, deceit, and manipulation on the other hand. There is nothing new in such associations. According to Samuel Johnson, politics is nothing more than a means of rising in the world, while Henry Adams described politics as the ‘systematic organisation of hatreds’ (Hale, 2017). Politics is one of the most confusing disciplines where most of the respected authorities fail to define this term in a specific way or in a single way; instead all define it in different ways.
Fig.1 Source: Approaches to Defining Politics (source: Aristotle, 2018)
The most popular definition of politics creating general social rules, preserve and amend it when needed. This definition of politics almost covers broad prospects of the politics. The main problem arises when the definitions of politics are unpacked or not clears or when meaning is not refined (Fraser, 2017). For example, politics refers to a specific way in which rules or policies are formulated or amend, or to all such process. Similarly, does politics apply to all the social issues or institutions or apply only on certain case or institutions (i.e. government or public affairs)? From considering the above perspective one can say that the term ‘politics’ can be treated as an ‘essential contested’ concept that is defined by various authors and respective authorities in various ways that shows a number of the acceptable and legitimate meaning of politics. Therefore, the debate about ‘what is politics?’ exactly shows the value of politics and exposes the ideological disagreement of people and various educational institutions in the field of academic study of the subject (Politics).
1. Politics as the Art of Government
Politics is derived from a Greek word’ Polis’, which means city-state. In the ancient Greece, the state is consisted of independent city and each city has its own rules and regulations that were linked with their own system of government. In the words of J.W Garner, “Political science begins and ends with the state.” In the words of Laski, “politics concerned with the study of the life of men and women in relation to organized states” (Ali, 2015). Thus, it can be said that study of politics mainly related to the study of government or in other words it can be said that it is the study of authority and power. In the words of Aristotle (2018), politics is concerned with the allocation of the authoritative allocation of scared resources and values. By which he means to convey that politics is related to all those policies and system of the government through which government distribute the rewards, benefits, resources, or penalties. It means how the government fulfil the demands of people and society. The allocation of such benefits, rewards, and penalties, is called authoritative because these allocations are extensively accepted by the community and obligatory by the people (Ward, et.al, 2018). Hence, from the above definitions and analysis, it can be said that politics involves crucial decisions or authoritative decisions made by the government.
Paul Janet said that political science is a crucial part of social science, which treats the foundation of the state and principles of government (Apple and Christian-Smith, 2017). The key problem associated with the above definition of politics is that it represents an incomplete understanding on politics as essentially the affairs of government including both state and central government. This means the above definition of politics is involving only those limited numbers of people who involve in government decision making and management team and those people who are trying to influence these decisions of government (Marres, 2010). This means most of the people, organisations, social activities, and institutions are reflected as the externals of the politics.
2. Politics as a Public Affair
Generally, it has been considered by the people that politics is concerned with both state and government and do not talk about public life. However, when we considered politics as a public affair then it considers the view of both political and non-political activities which accord with the separation between the public and private domain of life. Aristotle said that man is by nature a political animal. Through this statement, he want to convey that it is only the political community in which human being can live. It means that politics can be considered as an ethical activity that is related with creating a society for human beings. If people consider politics as a public affair then it can be said that politics is inherently social (Dodo, 2015).
Fig.2 Two views of the public/private divide (source: Aristotle, 2018)
Politics always involves two or more than two parties or human beings. There is nothing like the term political solitaire. In other words, it can be said that nobody is playing politics with his/her self. Politics always belongs to the society and people that can also be called as the political system. However, it is also considered that not all social activities are politics. The society includes numbers of independent and autonomous groups i.e. trade unions, clubs, community groups, kinship groups, family groups etc. There are numbers of private groups operating in public and considered as a public institution but more precisely it can be said that they are placed in an intermediate socio-economic sphere that is different from the state and public life (Laclau, 2012). However, in contrast to this opinion about politics, in recent time the personal life of people also considered as a political matter. One of the great examples of this is that the private life of politicians was considered as their own individual and private matters and should not be discussed in public, but now in these days, this tendency has been change and the private lives of political people are considered as a subject to public discussion and exploited for political advantages.
3. Politics as Compromise and Consensus
The third definition of politics assumes the existence of a conflict or disagreement. The politics is considered as an effort to solve the conflict with negotiations, compromise, and conciliation. According to this definition, it has been considered that politics is not the way of supporting coercive power to resolve any conflicts or issue. Bernard Crick said in his article ‘In defence of Politics’ that politics is the activity through which focuses on sharing power and authority between two or more parties in proportion to their need and importance that is related to well-being and persistence of the society and human-beings (Howe, 2015). However, not every situation involving conflict and efforts to mitigate the differences can be considered as a political situation (Geoghegan, 2010). For example, fight between two groups of students (senior and junior students) on the matter of ragging is not a political issue until it is not raise to the university administration. However, if one of the groups raises the issue to the university authority by giving a written complaint about intervention in this matter and resolving it, then this issue will be converted in a political matter or situation (Dodo, Nsenduluka, and Kasanda, 2016). Actually, politics of compromise and consensus of problems and issue face by people is not easy. Politics arises only because people are looking for share in the power or scarce resources, and these desires of people raise the situation of politics. However, the rival among people to get the scare resources or power must be pacified. In other words, it can be said that political conflict always arises because of public issues rather than private issues. The political conflict always demands a universal solution rather than personal or private one. That is why politics is treated by people as a tool to solve problems and reconciliation of the conflicting interest in society. It can also be said that politics infers a distribution of power or scare resources and avoid violent suppression and focuses on the need for conciliation of a problem by the involvement of interested party (Meyer, 2009).
4. Politics as Power
The fourth definition of politics concerned with power that is widely accepted and related with fundamentals of politics. Rather than concerning the above-discussed thought that was related to the government, the state, or public/private sphere, it is concerned with the human existence and of their well-being. However, this thought states that politics is a power that can be defined as the ability to achieve the desired result by any means (Nolan, 2018).
Generally, it is considered by the people that politics is the dirty game and should not be played by the gentlemen. Often people do not believe to trust politicians and people dislike politicians. The power theory of politics concerned with functional views of politics (Wapner, 2015). The power theory of politics generally refers to struggle for power, i.e., to influence people, to the distribution of power, to share power with other political parties or people, and to make decisions regarding using power and distribution of scared resources in the social context (Milne, 2018). In recent days, most of the politicians focus on how to acquire power and how to use it. Politicians use political power for political coercion and political authority. Political power has been used by politicians to exercise the rules and regulations on people against to their normal behaviour. In modern days, the law is a set of rules according to this state exercise the coercive power on people and community as a legitimate power (Carter, 2008). Law is a set of rules through which the political power exercised on people and if people disobey the law, they will be punished.
Conclusion
Politics is term that is defined by many authors in many ways. Politics can be understood differently by different authors and scholars. Politics has been considered as an art of government, which is related to the state and government power. It also considers the management of public affair, concerned as an instrument to solve the conflict through debate and compromise, and it is also concerned with making, spreading, and use of scared resources in social existence. it can be said that politics is inevitable process and is thought of an arena that exercise political power to influence people and sharing of scared resources and power among people or with rival political partners. In the end, it can be said that politic is a study of power and unity of three important elements called political, economic, and ideological aspects and combined used of these powers where a small number of people or group of people is able to rule over the mass or on society in which politicians belongs.
References
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