What is politics?
I’m going to show you what politics is and why it is important.
Today I want to speak to you about politics.
Usually, politics is associated with a lot of bad things and shady business in popular culture. That’s because most political news we get from the mass media is about corruption, lies, scandals, and so on. Therefore, people end up thinking politics is just all of this. However, that’s only one side, and that’s why we need to see the big picture. Let me explain.
Politics, as I already commented, has different meanings. But these meanings, aside from their pejorative connotations, have something in common. Politics is controversial. Why? You may ask yourself. And that’s what I’m going to answer.
Politics is controversial because it is related to the management of social conflict. Any society is formed by many different individuals with their interests, goals, beliefs, and so on. In general, society is plural, and this makes conflicts arise. Rules are necessary to regulate collective affairs and preserve the existence of society. And these affairs constitute the realm of the political.
Politics has to do with decisions made to solve or regulate social conflict. For this reason, politics is all about the organization of society and who makes decisions.
Consequently, there are many different ways to organize society, depending on the political stance of each actor. And every organizational model determines who wields the authority to make political decisions. So, this is what makes politics a controversial matter.
You may wonder what the function of politics is. Politics is the way societies have to keep their cohesion, and therefore their existence in the long run. However, some political decisions are not the best ones, and they fuel social conflict and even the destruction of society.
So, politics might be at the same time a means to maintain social cohesion, but also a means to drive political crisis and social change.
Usually, political struggles have to do with two different matters. First, the model of political organization, which includes who makes binding decisions, besides the regulation of access to that post and the extent of its authority. And secondly, the political decisions.
In some countries, political quarrels revolve around the political system. Who decides what and how to get access to power. In these cases, the whole political organization is questioned, and political controversies become a matter of principles.
However, in stable countries, the political debate is about government decisions and how it manages the social conflict. So, the political struggle is around who is the best candidate to lead the government. Each political actor mobilizes supporters and puts forward their program to raise more support. All in all, politics is a matter of who is the most suitable candidate to rule the country.
Diversity in society is the leading cause of social conflict, and it explains politics as the need to manage that conflict. However, the scope of politics is changeable because not all human differences are a political issue all the time. And this is what leads us to the matter of politicization.
When any human difference becomes a political issue, there is a process of politicization in progress. A conflict arises, and as a result, it ends up in the spotlight of the political debate. In these cases, the discussion is about the regulation of this matter.
When that happens, we witness how different social groups take sides, depending on their interests. Some groups defend this politicization, and others reject it. What it’s at stake here is the scope of the political realm.
It is essential how broad or narrow the scope of the political realm is because it determines what a political issue is and what affairs are regulated.
It’s time to go back to our initial question. Why is politics relevant?. Now we are ready to answer it.
Politics is important because it affects you. How?. Well, you have already seen political decisions are binding. That means they are compulsory because there is someone to enforce them. No matter where you are, you can’t escape from the effects of these decisions. So, they have a real and direct impact on your daily life.
No matter if you are not slightest interested in politics and you think it’s shit or a waste of time. You can’t escape the political struggle, which takes place in society even if you don’t want to see yourself involved in these quarrels. You are part of society, and it has its rules. Besides this, individuals and groups are trying to control the political decision-making process to advance their interests. All of this affects you because you have your interests, and they might be the opposite of those who make political decisions.
One day you wake up and find out that someone has decided to regulate telecommunications, and, from now on, you have to rent a new device for all your calls. Then, you realize how important politics is, despite your lack of interest in it. No matter if you want to keep away from politics, there is a struggle, and your interests are affected, directly or indirectly.
Does it mean that anything in politics has always been a permanent struggle for power, with winners and losers?. No. At least if we think about primitive societies which had scarcely social differences among their members. Anthropologists talk about these societies in their studies, and they show the low level of institutionalization of their organization, as well as their lack of permanent political structures. They were self-governed small communities united by blood ties.
They also had conflicts and problems, but the way they managed them was based on negotiation and cooperation. So, decisions and punishments were taken and executed by the community, without intermediaries.
However, our societies are much more complex, and inequality is the base of their organization with the existence of rulers and ruled.
Let’s move on and take a look at the point of view of those authors who defined politics in different ways. We find out at least four approaches.
In the first group, we find Niccolò Machiavelli, Harold Lasswell, and Robert Dahl. They considered politics the control over people and resources. Therefore, politics is any phenomenon related to forms of power and domination, because it entails the imposition of certain behaviors which wouldn’t be adopted spontaneously.
In the second group, there is Max Weber, who considered politics an activity developed by a set of public institutions. Consequently, politics is from his perspective any activity inside stable institutions, especially the State, because they have the authority to exercise coercion on society.
In the third group, we find other authors such as Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, Talcott Parsons, and David Easton, among many others. They considered politics an activity guided by values of order and social stability. So, politics is, from this point of view, an activity to foster commonwealth through values.
Finally, in the fourth group, we find Herbert Spencer and Ludwig Gumplowicz. These authors considered politics an activity related to the defense of the community against external threats. For this reason, the preparation of war and the military organization with its hierarchy, discipline, coercion, taxes, and so on, are the origin of political activity. Besides these authors, there is Carl Schmitt, whose notion of politics is a permanent struggle based on the distinction between friend and enemy.
As we can see, these perspectives have some common characteristics. Still, each of them emphasizes one aspect of politics, such as power, institutionalization, systems of values, and organized violence.
Let’s recap.
We’ve seen why politics is controversial. It deals with the organization of society, and who makes important decisions, that is, who wields authority. It also deals with the way to get access to authority. Consequently, power and its relations are the core of politics, and it explains why it’s essential in our daily life.
So, at this point, we conclude we need to study the power to understand politics. In this way, we can identify the basis of politics and how it works. Its working is essential because it allows us to understand what is going on behind the scenes. And that’s the raison d’etre of this channel.
Now, we have a general idea about what politics is. What follows is how it works. It leads us to the three dimensions which explain how politics works, that is, as structure, process, and result. And it also has to do with how we conceptualize politics. We can consider it a market, an organism, a machine, or something else, such as a play. That’s what we are going to talk about in the next article.
Question of the day!. What is politics for you?. Leave your opinion in the comments section below, and I will read it.
Bibliography used:
Machiavelli, NiccolĂł, The Prince
Dahl, Robert, Who Governs?: Democracy and Power in an American City
Dahl, Robert, “The Concept of Power” in Behavioral Science 2 (3), 1957, pp. 201-215
Lasswell, Harold D., Politics: Who Gets What, When, How
Lasswell, Harold D., Power and Personality
Clastres, Pierre, Society Against the State: Essays in Political Anthropology
Weber, Max, El polĂtico y el cientĂfico
Gumplowicz, Ludwig, Der Rassenkampf
Aristotle, Politics
Aquinas, Thomas, Aquinas: Political Writings
Aquinas, Thomas, On Law, Morality, and Politics
Locke, John, Second Treatise of Government: An essay concerning the true original, extent and end of civil government
Schmitt, Carl, The concept of the political
Spencer, Herbert, Social Statics
Vallès, Josep M., Ciencia PolĂtica: Una introducciĂłn
Bobbio, Norberto, Democracy and dictatorship
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