defining politics
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Ing. Mansoor Maitah Ph.D. et Ph.D.
Definig Politics
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Defining politics
Politics, in the broadest sense, is the activity
through which pepole make, preserve and amend
the general rules under which they live.
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Lasswellian Definition
"Politics is the process of who gets what, when, and how."
politics = allocation
values (resources)
scarcity
wealth
status
power
Politics is a process of allocating scarce values.
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"A political system can be designated as thoseinteractions through which values are authoritativelyallocated for a society."
(David Easton)
"A political association exists if ... the enforcement of its
order is carried out continually within a given territorialarea by the application and threat of physical force."
(Max Weber)
COLLECTIVITY
Defining Politics
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Defining Politics
"A political system is any persistent pattern of human relationships thatinvolves ... power, rule, or authority."
(Robert Dahl)
"A political association exists if . . . . its order is carried out ...by the applicationand threat of physical force."
(Max Weber)
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Defining politics
Politics is linked to the phenomena ofconflict and cooperation. Conflict: Competition between opposing forces, refelecting a diversity of
opinions, preferences, needs or interest.
Cooperation: Working together, acheaving goals through collective action.
On the one hand, the exitence of rival opinoins, different wants, competingneeds and opposing interest guarantees disagreemnet about the rules under
which people live. On the other hand people recognize that, in order to
influence these rules or ensure that they are upheld, they must work with
others. Disagree: How they should live, Who sould get what? How sould power and
other resources be distributed?
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Defining politics
Authority: authority can be most simply defined as legitimate power.Where as power is the ability to influence the behaviour of others,
authority is the right to do so.
The different views of politics examined here are as follows: politics as the art of of government
politics as public affairs
politics as compromise and consensus
politics as power and the distribution of resources.
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Politics as the art of of government
This is perhaps the classical defintion of politics, developed from the original
meaning of the term in Ancient Greece.
The word politics is derived from polis, meaning literally city-state. AncientGreek society was divided into a collection of independent city-states, eachof which processed its own systm of government. The largets and the
most influential was Athens. Polis: (Greek) City-state, classicaly understood to imply the highest or most
desirable form of social organization.
Polity: A society organized through the exercise of political authority, for
Aristotle, rule by the many in the intersets of all. Politics is what takes place within a polity, a system of social organization
centred upon the machinery of government. Politics is therefore practised incabinet rooms, legislative chambers, government departments and the like,
and it is engaged in by a limited and specific group of people, notablypoliticians, civil servants and lobbyists.
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Politics as the art of of government
Governance is a boarder term than government. In itsboardest sense, to govern means to rule or to control others.
Niccolo Machiavelli ( 1469-1527). Italian politician and author.
Aristotle (348-322BCE), Greek philosopher. Aristotle was astudent of Plato.
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Politics as public affairs
The distinction between the political and the nonpolitical, public sphereand private sphere.
The term civil society has been defined as a political community, a society
governed by law, under the authority of state. More commonly, it isdistinguished from the state, and the term is used to describe institutions thatare private, that are independent from government and organized byindividuals in pursuit of their own interests.
Autonomous groups- businesses, trade unions, clubs,
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Politics as public affairs
Aristotle declared that man is by nature a politicalanimal, by which he meant that it is only within a politicalcommunity that human beings can live the good life
Public- the state
Private- civil society- autonomous bodies, trade unions,clubs, firms..
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Politics as Compromise and Consensuss
In the third conception, politics is seen as a particularmeans of resolving conflict: that is, by compromise,negotiation, rather than through force and naked power.
Consensus: the term consensus means agreement, It
implies, first, a broad agreemnet, Second, it implies anagreement about fundemental or underlying principles, asopposed to a precise or exact agreement. .between
political parties, or between government and interestgroups.
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Politics as Power
The fourth definition of politics, politics concerns the
production, distribution and use of resources in the courseof social existence. Politics is, in this essence, Power: theability to achieve a desired outcome, through wahtevermeans. This includes everything from the ability to keep
alive to the ability of government to promote economicgrowth. More narrowly, power may be associated with theability to punish or reward, bringing it close to
manipluation. Faces of power: Power can be said to be excercised
whenever A gets B to do something that B would nototherwise have done. However, A can influnec B in various
ways. This allows us to distinguish between faces ofower:
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Faces of Power
A- Power as a decision-making: This face of powerconsists of conscious actions that in some way influencethe content of decisions.
B- Power as a agenda setting: The second face of power, is
ability to prevent decisions being made, that is, in effect,non decision-making
C- Power as thought control: The third face of power is
the ability to influence another by shaping what he or shethinks, wants, or needs.
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Power
Political Science differs from other sciences in part becauseof its emphasis on power (Machiavelli)
Politics determines how power will be exercised
Will we go to war? Who will Fight?
Who have to pay taxes and who will avoid them?
What separate Political Science from other Social Sciencedisciplines?
Its emphasis on Power
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Politics involves two processes
1. Decision Making
making resource allocations for the collectivity
2. Rule or Enforcement
inducing members of the collectivity to acceptresource allocations as binding.
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Four Related Concepts
Political System
Government
State
Nation
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POLITICAL SYSTEM
A political system is the totality of social actions that in any wayinfluence the making of binding value allocations for a
collectivity.
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GOVERNMENT
"The collection of 'offices' in a political system is whatconstitutes the government of that system."
Robert Dahl
Government = Specialized institutions for allocating
values.
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State
"The state is any government that successfully upholds a claimto the exclusive regulation of the legitimate use of physicalforce in enforcing its rules within a given territorial area."
Max Weber
State = sovereignty + territory
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NATION
A large group, or community, from which members
derive their basic political identity and toward whichthey devote great loyalty.
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Nation versus State
Nation State
Definition: - political Community - territoriality- Identity - sovereignty
American The United States
Czech The Czech Republic
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Basic Terminology
Nation
State
Nation- state
Regime
Government
Power
Authority
Legitimacy
Cleavage
Command economy
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Liberty versus Order
Politics essentially decides the tradeoff between Order andFreedom
We like both but cant have maximum amounts of both
Where this tradeoff lies is the central feature of any politicalsystem
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Public Policy
Developing public policy is like
squeezing a long balloon
Public policy implementation
reflects the structure and power flowof the state
Formal and informal influences
affect policy decisions
Examine policy issues (especiallypersistent ones) and the impact of
decisions made
Rival politicalparties
Other branches
of government
Domestic and
international
organizations
Formal
influences
Economicchanges
Grassroots
movements
Changes in social
values/beliefs
Informal
influences
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ThankThankThankThank YouYouYouYou forforforfor youryouryouryour AttentionAttentionAttentionAttention
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1 - John F Hall: Introduction to Macroeconomics, 2005
2 - Fernando Quijano and Yvonn Quijano: Introduction to Macroeconomics
3 - Karl Case, Ray Fair: Principles of Economics, 2002
4 - Boyes and Melvin: Economics, 2008
5 - James Gwartney, David Macpherson and Charles Skipton:Macroeconomics, 2006
6 - N. Gregory Mankiw: Macroeconomics, 2002
7- Yamin Ahmed: Principles of Macroeconomics, 2005
8 - Olivier Blanchard: Principles of Macroeconomics, 1996
Literature