CHAPTER 1

WHAT IS POLITICS?

POL101
 Problems with defining politics

• Politics is a loaded term – few people

come to politics without preconceptions
• It is also an essentially contested
concept, seen variously as
1) The art of government
2) Public affairs
3) Compromise and consensus
4) Distribution of power and resources

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Figure 1.1 Approaches to defining
politics, p.3

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 Politics as the art of government

• ‘Politics is not a science… but an art’

(Chancellor Bismarck)
• Politics is understood as that which
concerns the state
• To study politics is to study government –
and the exercise of authority
• This offers a highly restrictive view of
politics – most institutions and activities
(businesses, schools, families) are seen
as ‘non-political’
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 Politics as public affairs

• Distinction between ‘the political’ and ‘the non-

political’ coincides with the division between an
essentially public sphere of life and what can be
thought of as a private sphere.
• Traditional division between public and private
realm conforms to division between state and civil
society
• An alternative divide distinguishes between ‘the
political’ and ‘the personal’
• Politics does not and should not infringe on
personal affairs (ie. family and domestic life).
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Figure 1.2 Two views of the public/private
divide, p.7

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 Politics as compromise
and consensus
• Politics is seen as a means of resolving conflict
(by compromise and negotiation rather than
through force)
• Based on faith in the efficacy of debate and
discussion, as well as on the belief that society
is characterized by consensus, rather than by
irreconcilable conflict
• A failure to understand politics as a process of
compromise may have contributed to a growing
popular disenchantment with democratic politics
across much of the developed world. 7
 Politics as the distribution
of power and resources
• This view sees politics at work in all social
activities and in every corner of human
existence

• Politics is, in essence, power

• Advocates of this view include feminists

and Marxists
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 Approaches to
the study of politics
• The philosophical tradition
• The empirical tradition
• Behaviouralism
• Rational-choice theory
• New institutionalism
• Critical approaches

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Figure 1.3 Options in the prisoners’
dilemma, p.17

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 Tools of political analysis

• Concepts help us to classify objects by

recognizing that they have similar forms or
similar properties.
• Models include a network of relationships
that highlight the meaning and significance
of relevant empirical data
• Theories offer a systematic explanation of
a body of empirical data

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Figure 1.4 The political system, p.21

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Figure 1.5 Levels of conceptual analysis,
p.23

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 Politics in a global age

• A distinction has traditionally been made

between the domestic and international
realms of politics
• The state-based paradigm of politics has
come under pressure as a result of recent
trends and developments, including
globalization
• The increase in transnational flows has
expanded the parameters and complexity of
political activity
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Figure 1.6 Contrasting models of spatial
politics, p.24

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 Terms
• Behaviouralism: The belief that social theories
should be constructed only on the basis of
observable behaviour, providing quantifiable
data for research.
• Rational choice: An approach to politics based
on the assumption that individuals are rationally
self-interested actors; an 'economic' theory of
politics.

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 Terms
• Empirical: Based on observation and
experiment; empirical knowledge is derived from
sense data and experience.

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