POLS 1514 Introduction

to Political Science
Dr B Naude, Senior Lecturer
University of the Free State
Semester 1, 2022
Unit 1: Politics, a Conceptualisation
Part 1: What is politics?
Prescribed textbook

Heywood, A. 2019. Politics, 5th edition. New

York: Palgrave Foundations.

Q: Can I pass this module without reading the

textbook?

A: No.
Learning Unit Outcomes
(what you should know and be able to do at the end of the unit)

1. define the term politics;

2. analyse Political Science as a discipline;

3. evaluate the different views of politics; and

4. distinguish between the types of political ideologies.

What is Politics?
▪ The activity through which people make, preserve and amend the general
rules under which they live.
▪ Politics: very closely linked to the issues of conflict and cooperation.
▪ Often, politics is seen as the process of conflict resolution.
▪ Politics is everywhere: diversity (we are not all the same) and scarcity (there is
never enough to go around)
– These two ideas of diversity any scarcity and a core part of human life, and therefore
politics is clearly also part of the core of human life

▪ Politics is defined as: the exercise of power, the science of government, the
making of collective decisions, the allocation of resources, the practice of
deception and manipulation etc.
 What is Politics?
▪ Defining “politics” is problematic and difficult, because of how differently it can be interpreted and seen in
society
▪ Politics is defined in such different ways as the exercise of power, the science of government, the
making of collective decisions, the allocation of scarce resources, the practice of deception and
manipulation, and so on
– This clearly shows how difficult it really is to define and determine what politics really is and means,
because it is such a wide and varied topic/idea
▪ Some discussions and issues in defining politics includes:
– Does ‘politics’ refer to a particular way in which rules are made, preserved or amended (that is,
peacefully, by debate), or to all such processes?
– Is politics practised in all social contexts and institutions, or only in certain ones (that is, government and
public life)?
▪ From this perspective, politics may be treated as an essentially contested concept, in the sense that the
term has a number of acceptable or legitimate meanings
– There is not one single accepted definition of politics; depending on the perspective or approach, there
will be different definitions, of which none of them are necessarily wrong. This is then the meaning of
politics being “essentially contested”; at its core, politics is impossible to define and there will always be
more than one way of doing this.
Politics as the Art of Government
(pages 3 – 5)

▪ “Politics is not a science… but an art” – Chancellor Bismarck

▪ One of the main ways in which politics is defined and seen is that it is a form of art
– the art of government is: the exercise of control within society through the making
and enforcement of collective decisions.
▪ Historical roots of politics:
– Ancient Greek word “polis” – what concerns the people (the state).
▪ politics can be understood to refer to the affairs of the polis – in effect, ‘what concerns the
polis’.
▪ The modern form of this definition is therefore ‘what concerns the state’  anything that has
to do with the state or relates to the state can be seen as politics
▪ David Easton: politics is “the authoritative allocation of values”
– politics includes the various processes through which government responds to
pressures from the larger society
– ‘Authoritative values’: values that are widely accepted in society, and are considered
binding by the majority of citizens
Politics as the Art of Government
(pages 3 – 5)

▪ To study politics is, in essence, to study government, or to study the exercise of authority
– The processes through which governments responds to pressure from society.
▪ Authority is exercised through government policy
▪ Politics = Policy
– Policy: formal or authoritative decisions that affect the community
▪ Without some kind of mechanism (government) for allocating authoritative values, society
would simply disintegrate into a civil war of each against
▪ The task is therefore not to abolish politicians and bring politics to an end but, rather, to
ensure that politics is conducted within a framework of checks and constraints that
guarantee that governmental power is not abused.
▪ In summary: politics can be seen as being the function/mechanism of government, because
this is how politics really happens and is applied in society, through policy or the so-called
authoritative values
– There is a very negative connection made with politics, because of how power-hungry, self-
interested politicians are who work in government  the aim is to change this; because politicians
are servants of the public.
Politics as Public affairs
(pages 5 – 8)

▪ What is public and what is private/ political or non-political?

▪ Aristotle – “man is by nature a political animal”
– he meant that it is only within a political community that human beings
can live the ‘good life’. From this viewpoint, then, politics is an ethical
activity concerned with creating a ‘just society’; a fair society
– Politics: Ethical activity concerned with creating a good society.
▪ The big question that is asked in this definition is:
– What is the “public realm”? What is the “private realm”?
– The traditional difference between the public realm and the private realm
relates to the division between the state and civil society
– Public = funded by taxation for the interests of the community (courts,
police, army) VERSUS Private = funded by individual citizens for their own
interests(family private businesses, trade unions, clubs)
Politics as Public affairs
(pages 5 – 8)

▪ Based on the division between the

public/private realms of society:
– politics is restricted to the activities
of the state itself and the
responsibilities that are properly
exercised by public bodies  public
realm
– Those areas of life that individuals
can and do manage for themselves
(the economic, social, domestic,
personal, cultural and artistic
spheres, and so on) are therefore
clearly ‘non-political’  private
realm
Public Private

The state: Civil Society:

Apparatus of government Businesses
Army Trade unions
Police Clubs
Courts Churches
Social security Clubs

Public Private

Public Realm: Personal Realm:

Politics Family
Commerce Domestic Realm
Work
Art
Culture
Politics as Compromise and Consensus
(pages 8 – 9)

▪ This way of defining politics relates to the way in which decisions are made 
compromise and consensus rather than violence and force.
– Politics is seen as a particular means of resolving conflict, through the use of tools and strategies
like compromise and consensus, rather than the usual means of violence and force used to resolve
conflict
– The description of a solution to a problem as a ‘political’ solution implies peaceful debate and
arbitration, as opposed to what is often called a ‘military’ solution
▪ Bernard Crick: Politics [is] the activity by which differing interests within a given unit
of rule are conciliated by giving them a share in power in proportion to their
importance to the welfare and the survival of the whole community.
– Basically, what Crick says is: The key to politics is a wide dispersal of power, when social groups
and interest groups posses power it should be conciliated, not crushed.
– Politics: ‘that solution to the problem of order which chooses conciliation rather than violence and
coercion’.
– This is a liber-rationalist view  faith in the effectiveness of debate and discussion)
Politics as Compromise and
Consensus
(pages 8 – 9)

▪ Very positive definition of politics: does not claim to be the

best/ultimate solution, but it is a better option than that of
bloodshed, warfare and brutality.
– When looking at politics from this perspective, it can be seen as a force
that creates civility and is a civilized force itself
▪ People should be encouraged to respect politics as an activity,
and should be prepared to engage in the political life of their
own community.
– Not understanding that politics is a process of reconciliation and
compromise has resulted (or at least contributed) to people being
increasingly unhappy and unsatisfied with democratic-style politics
Politics as Power
(pages 9 – 10)

▪ “Politics as power” is most radical way of defining politics; broadest way

that politics can be defined
– Politics is present in all social activities and part of human existence
▪ Andrew Leftwich: “Politics is at the heart of all collective social activity,
formal and informal, public and private, in all human groups, institutions
and societies”.
– politics takes place at every level of social interaction  found within families and
amongst groups of friends just as much as amongst nations and on the global stage.
– However, what is it that is distinctive/different about political activity? What makes
politics different from any other form of social behaviour?
▪ At its broadest, politics concerns the production, distribution, and use of
resources in the course of social existence.
▪ Politics is, in essence, power:
– the ability to achieve a desired outcome, through whatever means
Politics as Power
(pages 9 – 10)
▪ “Faces” of Power: (page 9)  3 different “faces”
– Power = when A gets B to do something that B would not otherwise have done; A
influences B.
– A can influence B in different ways = “faces of power”  different dimensions or ways
that power is exerted and influences others
1. Power as decision-making (the stick, the deal, the kiss)
– conscious actions that in some way influence the content of decisions;
– Keith Boulding: distinguished the use of force or intimidation (the stick), productive
exchanges involving mutual gain (the deal), and the creation of obligations, loyalty
and commitment (the kiss).
– Ability to influence the making of decisions
2. Power as agenda-setting (non-decision-making)
– ability to prevent decisions being made: ‘non-decision-making’
– Being able to set or control the political agenda  preventing issues or proposals from
being aired in the first place.
– Capacity to shape political agenda/prevent decisions being made
Politics as Power
(pages 9 – 10)
(FACES OF POWER CONTINUED)

3. Power as thought control (propaganda)

– ability to influence another by shaping their
thoughts/how they think, what they want or
need
– This is power expressed as ideological
indoctrination or psychological control.
– In political life, the exercise of this form of
power is seen in the use of propaganda and,
more generally, in the impact of ideology
– Controlling people’s thoughts by the
manipulation of their
perceptions/preferences
Important concepts so far…
(use this as a checkpoint to make sure you
understand everything that has been covered)
1. Power (page 5)

▪ The ability to achieve a desired outcome, sometimes seen as the

‘power to’ do something.
▪ This includes everything from the ability to keep oneself alive to
the ability of government to promote economic growth.
▪ In politics, however, power is usually thought of as a relationship;
that is, as the ability to influence the behaviour of others in a
manner nor of their choosing.
▪ This implies have ‘power over’ people. More narrowly, power may
be associated with the ability to punish or reward, bringing it close
to force or manipulation, in contrast to ‘influence’.
2. Authority (page 4)

▪ Authority can most simply be defined as ‘legitimate power’.

▪ Whereas power is the ability to influence the behaviour of
others, authority is the right to do so.
▪ Authority is therefore based on an acknowledged duty to obey
rather than on any form of coercion or manipulation.
– In this sense, authority is power cloaked in legitimacy of rightfulness.
▪ Max Weber identified three kinds of authority, based on the
different groups on which obedience can be established:
traditional authority is rooted in history; charismatic authority
stems from personality; and legal-rational authority is grounded
in a set of impersonal rules.
3. Civil Society (page 6)

▪ Civil society originally meant a ‘political community’.

▪ The term is now more commonly distinguished from the state, and
is used to describe institutions that are ‘private’, in that they are
independent from government and organised by individuals in
pursuit of their own needs.
▪ Civil society therefore refers to a realm of autonomous groups and
associations: businesses, interest groups, clubs, families etc.
▪ The term ‘global civil society; has become fashionable as a means
of referring to non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) and
transnational social movements.
Debate: Should students of politics be
objective and neutral? (page 19)

▪ Many believe that a strict distinction should be drawn between studying

politics and practising politics, between having an academic interest in the
subject and being politically engaged or committed.
▪ But does this distinction stand up to examination?
▪ Should we (teachers and students of political science) approach the study of
politics in a neutral manner, while trying to adopt a stance of ‘scientific'
objectivity?
▪ Or should we accept that, in politics, interest and commitment are inevitably
linked, and even that political conviction may drive political understanding?
▪ The following slides will lay out a debate arguing for and against being
objective and neutral in politics when studying it
Debate: Should students of politics be
objective and neutral? (page 19)
Debate: Should students of politics be
objective and neutral? (page 19)
▪ YES: DESIRE TO EXPLAIN
– Motives for studying politics and practising politics are, or at least should be,
different.
– Students should seek, *most importantly* to understand and explain the (all
too often complex and baffling) political world.
– As they want to ‘make sense’ of things, any personal preferences they may
hold must be treated as of strictly secondary importance.
– In contrast, practitioners of politics (politicians, activists etc.) are principally
concerned with reshaping the political world in line with their own convictions
or preferences  the real-world practitioners of politics therefore fall out of
line with the principle of trying to understand and explain the political world in
an objective way, and often their own personal opinions, preferences and
interests become of primary importance
– Political convictions thus blind people to ‘inconvenient’ truths, allowing
political analysis to service the needs of political advocacy.
Debate: Should students of politics be
objective and neutral? (page 19)

▪ YES: OBJECTIVE KNOWLEDGE

▪ There is an approach to the acquisition (“getting”) of knowledge that has unrivalled
authority, namely the scientific method,
– this should be applied to all areas of learning, politics (or ‘political science’) included.
▪ Using observation, measurement and experimentation, scientific method allows
hypotheses to be verified or falsified by comparing them with what we know about the ‘real
world’.
▪ Systematic enquiry, guided by such scientific principles, is the only reliable means of
producing and accumulating knowledge.
▪ This knowledge is ‘objective’ because it is generated through a value-free approach that is
concerned with empirical questions and does not seek
▪ Only by using this scientific method can reliable, usable knowledge be gathered in the
political science discipline
Debate: Should students of politics be
objective and neutral? (page 19)

▪ YES: FREE-FLOATING INTELLECTUALS

▪ Education and intellectual enquiry allows students and teachers to distance
themselves, over time, from the allegiances and biases that derive from social and
family backgrounds.
▪ The German sociologist Karl Mannheim(1893–1947) thus argued that objectivity is
strictly the preserve of the ‘socially unattached intelligentsia’, a class of
intellectuals who alone can engage in disciplined and dispassionate enquiry.
▪ As free-floating intellectuals, they can stand back from the world they seek to
understand, and thereby see it more clearly.
▪ Thus, over time, as individuals continue with their studies, increase their
knowledge and learn more about the political world, they are able to objectively
observe the world, politics and see/observe all of this without being influenced by
their own personal ideas/preferences.
Debate: Should students of politics be
objective and neutral? (page 19)
▪ NO: MYTH OF NEUTRALITY
▪ Whereas natural scientists may be able to approach their studies from an objective
and impartial standpoint, this is impossible in politics.
▪ However politics is defined, it addresses questions about the structure and
functioning of the society in which we live and have grown up.
– It does not matter how one approaches politics, there are inherent aspects in
every human being that will influence how an individual thinks about politics 
impossible to maintain perfect objectivity or neutrality
▪ Family background, social experience, economic position, political sympathies and
so on therefore build into every preconceptions about the political world we are
seeking to study  these aspects influence how politics is seen by people studying
it
▪ Indeed, perhaps the greatest threat to reliable knowledge comes not from bias as
such, but from the failure to acknowledge bias, reflected in bogus (nonsense; false)
claims about being able to maintain or acquire political neutrality.
Debate: Should students of politics be
objective and neutral? (page 19)

▪ NO: EMANCIPATORY KNOWLEDGE

▪ Very few people are drawn to the study of politics through a disinterested quest for
knowledge alone.
▪ Instead, they seek knowledge for a purpose, and that purpose invariably has a normative
component.
– As Karl Marx stated, ‘The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in
various ways; the point is to change it’.
▪ Such an approach is most clearly embraced by modern critical theorists, who adopt an explicit
commitment to emancipatory politics.
▪ The purpose of critical theory is to uncover structures of oppression and injustice in domestic
and global politics in order to advance the cause of individual and collective freedom.
– Thus: the purpose of studying politics is not just to observe the world, but to critically analyse and
study the world and politics, in order to create change  this can only be done by acquiring
knowledge about politics and the world
Debate: Should students of politics be
objective and neutral? (page 19)

▪ NO: COMPETING REALITIES

▪ Post-positivist theorists question the very idea of scientific objectivity, arguing
that there is more than one way in which the world can be understood.
▪ There is thus no single, overarching truth about the ‘real world’ out there,
separate from the beliefs, ideas and assumptions of the observer.
▪ If the subject (the student of politics) cannot in any reliable way be distinguished
from the object (the political world), then dispassionate (not influenced by strong
emotion, and so able to be rational and impartial) scholarship must be treated as, at
best, an unachievable ideal, social and political analysis being an inevitably value-
laden activity.
▪ Because of people’s different backgrounds and influences in their life and studies,
there is no single way to “objectively” study politics, because everyone inherently
has a different way of thinking, studying and observing the world and politics.