Politics

1

Politics and political science

Political science is the study of politics in all its aspects. Occasionally politics is used as a synonym for political science: sometimes as the title of university departments of political science. This may be confusing. Although a few political scientists have become politicians, and even more rarely politicians have become political scientists, the activities of the two, despite impinging on each other, are quite different.

1.1 What is politics?

Politics can be regarded in at least four ways.

1.1.1 Politics as an activity

Politics is an activity indulged in, either full-time or part-time, by politicians. They are concerned with some or all of the collective decisions that affect the political unit they live in. It could be a small sub-unit like a parish, or it could be the central government. In most societies there is a divide between politicians and the rest of the citizenry who choose to play only a minimal part in decision-making for the collectivity. The politicians have become professionalized - they are professional politicians. But hypothetically there is no reason why there should be such a divide. There are small communities in existence where all adults participate in making decisions for the whole body politic.

Yet to say 'politics is an activity' is merely the beginning of wisdom. The activity is pursued quite variously in different contexts. In some it is the occasion of great antagonisms. Not all politicians, by any means, want every proposal adopted: on the contrary, they may try to prevent most of them succeeding. In some societies policies will be imposed by rulers and opposition may not be allowed. Here there will be only a few politicians imposing their own decisions. Hence there are numerous

types of political regime (see Chapter 4 below) and numerous kinds of political activity....