What is Politics?

Prof. Dr. Khalid Manzoor Butt

Defining Politics
Politics in its broadest sense is the activity
through which people, make, preserve and
amend the general rules under which they
live.
Politics inextricably linked to the phenomena
of conflict and cooperation.
On one hand, the existence of rival opinions,
different wants, competing needs and
opposing interests guarantees disagreement
about the rules under which people live.
On the other hand people notice in order to
influence these rulers or ensure that they
are upheld, they must work with others.
That is why Hannah Arendt called Political
power “acting in concert”.
That is why of Politics is often portrayed as
a process of conflict resolution in which
rival views and competing interests are
reconciled with one another.
In the presence of diversity and scarcity
politics has become an inevitable feature of
the human condition.
Any attempt to clarify the meaning of Politics
have met with two major problems:
◦ Mass associations attributed with the word
“politics”
◦ What the subject politics is about?

Politics is often thought of as a dirty word.

That is why Samuel Johnson (1775)
dismissed Politics as “nothing more than a
means of rising in the world”.
US historian Henry Adams summed up
Politics as “ the systematic organization of
hatred”.
Politicsis defined in different ways as the
exercise of power, the exercise of
authority, the making of collective
decisions, the allocation scarce resources,
the practice of deception and
manipulation, and so on.
There are different views about the
subject matter of Politics. The views are
as follows:
◦ Politics as the art of government
◦ Politics as Public Affairs
◦ Politics as Compromise and Consensus
◦ Politics as Power and the distribution of
resources
Politics as the Art of Government
The word Politics is derived from Polis meaning
literally city-state.
Chancellor Bismarck said that “Politics is not a
science but an art”.
The art Bismarck had in mind was the art of
government; the exercise of control within
society through the making and enforcement of
collective decisions.
This is perhaps the classical definition politics
developed from the original meanings of the
term in Ancient Greece.
This view of the politics is clearly evident in
the everyday use of the term; people are said
to be in politics when they hold public office
or to be entering politics when they seek to
do so.
It is also the definition that academic political
science has helped to perpetuate.
The notion that politics amount to ‘what
concerns the state’ is the traditional view of
politics.
To study politics in essence is to study
government or more broadly to study the
exercise of authority.
David Easton defined Politics as the “
authoritative allocation of values”.
By this he meant that the government
respond to the pressures from the larger
society in particular by allocating benefits,
rewards and penalties.
Authoritative values are widely accepted in
the society and considered binding by the
mass of citizens
In this view Politics is associated with policy
that is formal or authoritative decisions that
establish a plan of action for the community.
However, this definition gives highly
restricted view of politics.
This means that most people, most
institutions and most social activities will be
regarded as non-political.
This definition is a hangover from the days
when the nation state could still regarded
as an independent actor in the world affairs.
Increasing influence of and importance of
trans-national technology and multi-
national corporations has changed the
dynamics of politics.
It is a growing recognition that the task of
managing complex societies is no longer simply
carried out by the government but involves a
wide range of public and private sector bodies.
The government is being replace by governance.
The definition of politics is narrowed down and
treated as the equivalent of the party politics.
Through this the realm of politics is restricted to
those who are consciously motivated by
ideological believes and who seek to advance it
through membership of formal organization such
as a political party.
This means that politicians are described
as political while the civil servants as non
political.
The link between politics and the affairs of
the state also helps to explain why
negative attributes are associated with
politics.
The negative perception of politics has
become more common in the modern era
due to the intensified media exposure of
corruption and dishonesty.
This negativity concerning politics is
giving rise to anti-politics.
Anti-Politics is the disillusionment with
formal and established political processes
reflected in non-participation, support for
anti-system parties or the use of direct
action.
Niccolo Machiavelli developed a realistic
account of politics in his book Prince, in
which he drew attention towards the use
by political leaders of cunning, cruel and
manipulative ways.
This negative understanding of Politics
originates from liberal perception of
politics which sees individuals as self-
interested and political power is corrupting
because it encourages those in power to
exploit their position for personal
advantage.
That is why Lard Acton said: “Power tends
to corrupt, and absolute power corrupt
absolutely”.
Those who view politics in this way doubt
that political activity is an inevitable and
permanent feature of social existence.
The truth is without some kind of mechanism
for allocating authoritative values, society
would simply disintegrate into a civil war.
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 ensure that government power is not
abused.
Politics as Public Affairs
This conception of politics moves it
beyond the narrow realm of government
to the broader realm of ‘public life’ or
‘public affairs’.
Such a view of politics is often traced back
to the work of the famous Greek
philosopher Aristotle.
In Politics, Aristotle, declared that man by
nature is a political animal.
He meant that it is only within a political
community that a humans can live the
good life.
From this viewpoint, then politics is an
ethical activity concerned with creating a
just society.
Aristotle called it a ‘master science’.
The traditional distinction between the
public realm and the private realm be
drawn to the division between the state
and the civil society.
The institutions of state (state apparatus, the
courts, the police, the social security, the
social security system etc) is regarded public
in the sense that they are responsible for the
collective organization of the community life
and they are funded at the public’s expense
(i.e. out of taxation).
Civil Society consist of institutions such as the
family and kinship group, private businesses,
trade unions, clubs, and community groups.
They are called private as they are funded by
individual citizens to satisfy their own interests
rather than those of the larger society.
An alternative public/private divide is
sometimes defined as the personal and
the political.

Public Private
The state; apparatus of Civil Society:
Government autonomous bodies:
businesses, trade
unions, clubs, families
and so on

Public Private
Public Realm: Politics, Personal realm: family
commerce, work, art, and domestic life
culture and so on
This is the restricted view of politics.
According to this perspective should not
infringe upon personal affairs and
institutions.
Feminist thinkers have pointed out that
politics effectively stops at the front door.
The view of Politics as essentially public
activity has generated both positive and
negative images.
Hannah Arendt: Politics is the most
important form of human activity because it
involves interaction amongst free and equal
citizens.
Rousseau: Only through the direct and
continuous participation of all citizens in political
life can the state be bound to the common good
or the general will.
However, liberal theorists in particular have
exhibited a preference for civil society over state
on the grounds that private life is a realm of
choice, personal freedom and individual
responsibility.
This narrows the realm of politics as it push
politics out of private activities like business,
sports and family life.
This perspective believes that it stops people
from acting as they choose.
Politics as compromise and
Consensus
This conception of politics relates with the
way in which decisions are made.
In it politics is seen as a particular means
of resolving conflict: that is, by
compromise, conciliation (appeasement),
negotiation rather than through force and
naked power.
Under this conception politics is portrayed
as the art of the possible.
This view of Politics is traced to the
writings of Aristotle.
Especially his believe that polity is the
ideal system of government as it
combines both aristocratic and democratic
features.
One of the modern exponent of this
concept of Politics is Bernard Crick.
In his classic study, In defence of Politics,
Crick offered the following definition:

“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. (Crick, [1962] 2000:21)”
In this view the key to politics is wide
dispersal of power and accepting that
conflict is inevitable.
Such a view of politics reflects a deep
commitment to liberal-rationalist
principles.
It is based on resolute faith in the efficacy
of debate and discussion.
This view of Politics has a positive
character.
 Crick saw politics as a neglected activity.
He saw its principal enemy as the desire
for certainty at any cost and he warned
that this is demonstrated in many forms
including the seductive influence of
political ideology, blind faith in ideology,
the impact of rabid (extreme/fanatical)
nationalism, and the promise of science to
disclose objective truth.
Politics as Power
This is the broadest and the most radical
conception of Politics.
It does not confines politics to a certain
sphere, this sees politics at work in all
social activities and in every corner of
human existence.
 In this sense, politics takes place at
every level of social interaction.
In broader terms, Politics concerns the
production, distribution and use of the
resources in the course of Social
existence.
Politics is, in essence, power: the ability
to achieve a desired outcome, through
whatever means.
Advocates of this view of politics include
Feminists and Marxists.
Women have traditionally been confined
to a private sphere. In contrast, men have
always dominated conventional politics
and the other areas of public life.
Radical feminist attacked public/private
divide by proclaiming that the “personal is
the political”.
This encapsulates the feminist belief that
what goes in the family life is intensely
political.
Marxisthave used the term “politics” in
two senses:
◦ Marx referred to it as the apparatus of the
state. He called the political power as merely
the organized power of one class for opposing
the another. (Communist Manifesto)
◦ Politics is the most concentrated form of
economics. (Lenin)
 Marxist believe that class struggle is very heart
of politics.
 This portrays politics in a negative term.
Politics
quite simply is about oppression
and subjugation.

On the other hand, these negative

implications are balanced against the fact
that politics is also seen as the means
through which injustice and domination
can be challenged.