Welcome to POL C 212

Modern Political Concepts

Shamuel Tharu (VFAC)

Trained in Economics, Politics and International Relations

PhD work is on terrorism law and international politics

Taught at Delhi University and Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Text Book

Heywood, A. (2000) Key Concepts in Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Reference books

Tansey, S. D. (2000) Politics: The Basics. London: Routledge.

Bhargava, R. & Acharya, A. (Eds.) (2008) Political Theory: An Introduction. New Delhi: Pearson.

EvaluationComponent Duratio

n

Weightage

(%)

Date and

Time

Remarks

Test I 1 hr 20 25th Sept

2012

12:20-1:30

pm

Open Book

Test II 1hr 20 6th Nov 2012

12:20-1:30

pm

Written

assignment (2)

(10+10) 20 To be submitted

before the class test

Comprehensive

Examination

3 hrs 40 10th Dec

2012

Forenoon

What is politics?

Politics, in its broadest sense, is the activity through which people make, preserve and amend the general rules under which they live.

Politics is thus inextricably linked to the phenomena of conflict and cooperation.

On the 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 recognise that, in order to influence these rules or ensure that they are upheld, they must work together with others hence Hannah Arendts (190675) definition of political power as acting in concert

This is why the heart of politics is often portrayed as a process of conflict resolution, in which rival views or competing interests are reconciled with one another.

However, politics in this broad sense is better thought of as a search for conflict resolution than as its achievement, as not all conflicts are, or can be, resolved.

From this perspective, politics arises from the facts of diversity (we are not all alike) and scarcity (there is never enough to go round).

Different notions

However, four quite different notions of politics can be identified.

First, it is associated specifically with the art of government and the activities of the state. This is perhaps the classical definition of politics, developed from the original meaning of the term in Ancient Greece (politics is derived from polis, literally meaning city-state).

In this view politics is an essentially state-bound activity, meaning that most people, most institutions and most social activities can be regarded as being outside politics.

Second, politics is viewed as a specifically public activity in that it is associated with the conduct and management of the communitys affairs rather than with the private concerns of the individual. Such a view can be traced back to Aristotles (38422 BCE) belief that it is only within a political community that human beings can live the good life.

Third, politics is seen as a particular means of resolving conflict, that is, by compromise, conciliation and negotiation, rather than through force and naked power. This is what is implied when politics is portrayed as the art of the possible, and it suggests a distinction between political solutions to problems involving peaceful debate and arbitration, and military solutions.

Fourth, politics is associated with the production, distribution and use of resources in the course of social existence.

In this view politics is about power: the ability to achieve a desired outcome, through whatever means. Advocates of this view include feminists and Marxists.

What is the scope of politics

The what is politics? debate highlights quite different approaches to political analysis and exposes some of the deepest and most intractable conflicts in political thought. In the first place it determines the very subject matter and parameters of the discipline itself.

Traditional view

The traditional view that politics boils down to what concerns the state has been reflected in the tendency for academic study to focus upon the personnel and machinery of government.

To study politics is in essence to study government or, more broadly, to study what David Easton (1981) called the authoritative allocation of values

Politics as Power

However, if the stuff of politics is power and the distribution of resources, politics is seen to take place in, for instance, the family, the workplace, and schools and universities, and the focus of political analysis shifts from the state to society

Politics and Society

Definitions of politics that relate it to the art of government, public affairs or peaceful compromise are based upon an essentially consensus model of society, which portrays government as basically benign and emphasises the common interests of the community

Views of politics that emphasise the distribution of power and resources tend to based upon conflict models of society that stress structural inequalities and injustices. Karl Marx (181883) thus referred to political power as merely the organised power of one class for oppressing another,

while the feminist author Kate Millett (1970) defined politics as power-structured relationships, arrangements whereby one group of persons is controlled by another.

Morality of Politics

Finally, there is disagreement about the moral character of political activity and about whether it can, or should, be brought to an end.

On the one hand, to link politics to government is to regard it as, at worst, a necessary evil, and to associate politics with community activity and non-violent forms of conflict resolution is to portray it as positively worthwhile, even ennobling.

On the other hand, those who link politics to oppression and subjugation often do so to expose structures of inequality and injustice in society, which, once overthrown, will result in the end of politics itself.