The word Politics came from Greek word polis which means affairs of the cities.

Politics is the process of making

decisions that apply to members of a group. It refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance — organized
control over a human community, particularly a state. Furthermore, politics is the study or practice of the distribution of
power and resources within a given community (this is usually a hierarchically organized population) as well as the
interrelationship(s) between communities.

Why study Politics Political Science is the study of a range of political ideas, events, actions, and institutions. It
includes both understanding and explaining the world of politics that is all around us. You participate in politics, though
most of the time you do so unknowingly. Politics is much more than simply voting in an election or working in
government. Reading or listening to news, making donations to aid groups, or talking with friends and family about
social issues and values are a few of the many examples of political activity in our everyday lives. This means they vary
across individuals and cultures and are in many ways aligned with belief and belief systems. Types of values include
ethical/moral values, doctrinal/ideological (religious, political) values, social values, and aesthetic values.

The Meaning of Governance

Governance is all of the processes of governing, whether undertaken by a government, market or network,
whether over a family, tribe, formal or informal organization or territory and whether through the laws, norms, power
or language of an organized society. It relates to the processes of interaction and decision-making among the actors
involved in a collective problem that lead to the creation, reinforcement, or reproduction of social norms and
institutions. In lay terms, it could be described as the political processes that exist in between formal institutions.

Government vs. Governance

Governance is the act of governing or ruling. It is the set of rules and laws framed by the government that are to
be implemented through the representatives of the state. The difference between “government” and “governance” may
be clarified using an example of a business which is run by a group of people. Governance is from the Greek words
kybenan and kybernetes, meaning ‘to steer’ and ‘pilot’ or ‘helmsman’. It is the process whereby ‘an organization or a
society steers itself, and the dynamics of communication and control are central to the process’ (Rosenau and Durfee,
1995, p. 14). Of course, you could read these words as a pretty sound definition of government but that would be
missing the point. Government describes a more rigid and narrower set of activities among a narrower set of
participants (usually civil servants, elected politicians and some influential or privileged interests). The word
‘governance’ is often used in this course because it is a better fit for the issues of global environmental change
addressed. It has spread like wildfire through debates on a range of issues, but particularly around environment and
development issues, because it acknowledges that there is a range of institutions, rules and participants, both within
and beyond the nation state, who are involved in making decisions. This is happening at both national and international
levels, but also in innovative new forms of organisation that cut across government boundaries. The state is seen as
having progressively lost its monopoly over the control of citizens and the regulation of business and other institutions.
It is still a player, but commentators have to take into account a range of other participants and scales. Political scientists
are having to think in terms of webs or networks of governance. They have to consider these as being both horizontal
and vertical, and as representing new ways of distributing the business of managing societies' concerns across local,
national, regional and international scales. Involvement of a wider circle of stakeholders is seen as central.

The Basic Tenets of the Major Political Ideologies

These political ideologies are, for the most part, mutually exclusive. So, a liberal government does not usually practice
socialism, nor does an absolute ruler follow liberalism. The five major political ideologies have played a key role in
history by shaping governments and political movements.

Anarchism The belief that the best government is absolutely no government is known as anarchism. This ideology
argues that everything about governments is repressive and therefore must be abolished entirely. A related ideology
known as nihilism emphasizes that everything—both government and society—must be periodically destroyed in order
to start anew. Nihilists often categorically reject traditional concepts of morality in favor of violence and terror.
Anarchism and Nihilism were once associated with socialism because many anarchists and nihilists supported the
socialists’ call for revolution and the complete overhaul of government and society in the early to mid-twentieth
century.

Liberalism In the early modern age of the Western world (beginning roughly in the early 1500s and running for about
200 years), a number of changes occurred that led to new ideologies: The European discovery of the Americas, the rise
of Protestantism, the beginnings of the free-market economy, and the early stages of the scientific revolution
fundamentally altered Europe. People began developing different ways of thinking to take account of these changes.

Conservatism (also known as classical conservatism) began as a reaction against the liberal ideas taking hold of Europe
during the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century. This type of conservatism differs from American
conservatism. Edmund Burke, a British member of Parliament, observed the early stages of the French Revolution with
great distress and predicted the violence and terror that would ensue. His book, Reflections on the Revolution in France
(1790), is one of the founding texts of classical conservatism.

Socialism arose as a response to the Industrial Revolution, which was the emergence of technologies such as the steam
engine and mass production. The Industrial Revolution started in England in the last years of the eighteenth century and
had spread to much of Europe and America by the end of the nineteenth century. It caused major upheavals. In a very
short time, many people were forced to abandon agricultural ways of life for the modern mechanized world of factories.

Nationalism, a strong belief that one’s nation is great (and, usually, better than others), also arose during the modern
era. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, nationalism emerged as a powerful force that caused a number of
revolutions. People began to identify with and take pride in their particular nation state. The French Revolution and the
subsequent Napoleonic Wars helped spread nationalism throughout Europe because many nations rallied together to
defeat Napoleon.

Fascism is a highly nationalist, militaristic, totalitarian political ideology in which one person has absolute power. World
War I was the key event that spawned fascism. The war was the first major war fought between industrialized nations,
which were armed with technology such as machine guns and chemical weapons. The result was utter devastation.
Millions died, entire countries collapsed, and those who survived were often profoundly disillusioned. For many people,
the war showed that modern ideas had failed and that a new way was needed.