Chapter 1: What is politics?

"Man is by nature a political animal."

-Aristotle

-Without government, men are nearly surviving as beast

-Speech gives man its political nature

-Second face of power

Politics is, above all, a ____ activity.

social

- a dialogue, not a monologue

- people disagree about what makes a social interaction political

Define politics

the activity through which people make, preserve, and amend the general rules under which they live

- the exercise of power

- the science of government

- the making of collective decisions

- the allocation of scarce resources

- the practice of deception and manipulation

- the ability to achieve a desired outcome

- 'the systematic organization of hatreds'

(many competing definitions, therefore being an essentially contested concept)

Conflict

competition between opposing forces, reflecting a diversity of opinions, preferences, needs, or interests

Cooperation

working together; achieving goals through collective action

Four approaches to defining politics

politics as the art of government

politics as public affairs (broader)

politics as compromise and consensus

politics as power (broadest and most radical)

Two broad approaches to defining politics

politics as an arena

politics as a process

Politics as an arena

- politics associated with an arena or location

- behavior becomes political based on where it takes place

Politics as a process

- politics viewed as a process or mechanism

- 'political' behavior is behavior that exhibits distinctive characteristics or qualities

- can take place in any and perhaps all social contexts

Positionality

A person's uniquely situated social position, which reflects his or her gender, nationality, political views, previous experiences, and so on.

(your position in society shapes your perspective and what you find important)

Polis

Greek for 'city-state', classically understood to imply the highest or most desirable form of social organization

David Easton

US political scientist (1979, 1981)

- defined politics as 'authoritative allocation of values'

- politics encompasses various processes through which government responds to pressures from larger society (allocating benefits, rewards, penalties)

What does it mean to study politics?

to study government, to study the essence of authority

Authority

- 'legitimate power'

- the right to use power to influence the behavior of others

Polity

A society organized through the exercise of political authority; for Aristotle, rule by the many in the interests of all

Traditional authority

rooted in history

Charismatic authority

stems from personality

Legal-rational authority

authority based in laws, rules, and procedures, not in the heredity or personality of any individual leader

(impersonal rules)

Anti-politics

Disillusionment with formal or established political processes, reflected in non-participation, support for anti-system parties, or the use of direct action

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

1. Renaissance political philosopher who wrote "The Prince"

2. Believed that people are ungrateful and untrustworthy

3. Urged rulers to study war, avoid unnecessary kindness, and always base policy upon the principle that the end justifies the means

Power

the ability to achieve a desired outcome

- thought of as a relationship in politics

- the ability to influence the behavior of others in a manner not of their choosing

Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

- Greek philosopher

- Pupil of Plato

- Tutor of Alexander the Great

- Author of works on logic, metaphysics, ethics, natural sciences, politics and poetics

- Profoundly influenced Western thought

- portrayed the city-state as the basis for virtue and well-being, argued that democracy is preferable to oligarchy

Civil society

- originally meant a 'political community'

- used to describe institutions that are 'private' (independent from government)

- autonomous groups and associations

The public/private divide

public - the state: apparatus of government

(public realm: politics, commerce, work, art, culture)

private- civil society: autonomous bodies, businesses, trade unions, clubs, families

(personal realm: family and domestic life)

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)

- German philosopher and political theorist

- fled Nazi Germany, settled in the US

- drew parallels between Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia

- argued that politics is the most important form of human activity because involves interaction amongst free and equal citizens

Consensus

- agreement (broad: accepted by a wide range of individuals or groups, agreement about fundamental/underlying principles)

- permits disagreement on matters of emphasis or detail

Procedural consensus

willingness to make decisions through a process of consultation and bargaining

Substantive consensus

an overlap of ideological positions that reflect agreement about broad policy goals

The three faces of power

- power as decision making

- power as agenda setting

- power as preference shaping

Power as decision-making

consists of conscious actions that in some way influence the content of decisions

Power as agenda setting

the ability to prevent decisions from being made (non-decision making)

Power as thought control

the ability to influence another by shaping what he or she thinks, wants, or needs

Science

field of study aiming to develop reliable explanations of phenomena through repeatable experiments, observation, and deduction

Approaches to the study of politics

the philosophical tradition

the empirical tradition

behavioralism

rational-choice theory

new institutionalism

critical approaches

the philosophical tradition

- Plato and Aristotle considered founding fathers of this tradition

- the 'traditional' approach to politics

- involves the analytical study of ideas and doctrines that have been central to political thought

- focuses on 'major' thinkers and 'classic' texts

- primarily interested in examining what major thinkers said, how they developed or justified their views, and the intellectual context within which they worked

Normative

the prescription of values and standards of conduct, what 'should be' rather than 'what is'

Objective

external to the observer, demonstrable, untainted by feelings, values, or bias

Plato (427-347 BCE)

- Greek philosopher who was a student of Socrates

- wrote many fascinating discussions of ethics, religion, beauty, and logic, called Dialogues.

- student = Aristotle

the empirical tradition

- characterized by the attempt to offer a dispassionate and impartial account of political reality

- descriptive, seeks to analyze and explain

Empirical

based on observation and experiment, empirical knowledge is derived from sense data and experience

Behavioralism

the belief that social theories should be constructed only on the basis of observable behavior, providing quantifiable data for research

Positivism

the belief that social, and all forms of enquiry, should adhere strictly to the methods of the natural sciences

Comparative poltics

- refers to both disciplinary subfield and method of analysis

- the 'politics of foreign countries'

- involves identifying and exploring similarities and differences between political units (usually states) --> producing reliable generalizations

Rational-choice theory

- 'formal political theory'

- 'public choice theory'

- 'political economy'

- universally accepted but may overestimate human rationality

- pays insufficient attention to social and historical factors

Game theory

a way of exploring problems of conflict or collaboration by explaining how one actor's choice of strategy affects another's best choice or vice versa

Constructivism

- approach to analysis based on the belief that there is no objective social or political reality independent of our understanding of it

Institution

a well-established body with a formal role and status; a set of rules that ensure regular and predictable behavior (the 'rules of the game')

Post-modernism

- highlights the shift away from societies structured by industrialization and class solidarity to increasingly fragmented and pluralistic 'information' societies

Post-positivism

An approach to knowledge that questions the idea of an 'objective' reality, emphasizing instead the extent to which people conceive, or 'construct'; the world in which they live

Discourse

human interaction, especially communication (may disclose or illustrate power relations)

Deconstruction

a close reading of philosophical or other texts with an eye to their various blindspots and/or contradictions

The Prisoner's Dilemma

a particular "game" between two captured prisoners that illustrates why cooperation is difficult to maintain even when it is mutually beneficial

Ideal type

a mental construct in which an attempt is made to draw out meaning from an otherwise complex reality through the presentation of a logical extreme

Essentially contested concept

A concept about which controversy is so deep that no settled or neutral definition can ever be developed

Model

a theoretical representation of empirical data that aims to advance understanding by highlighting significant relationships and interactions

Paradigm

pattern or model that highlights relevant features of a particular phenomenon

- refers to an intellectual framework comprising interrelated values, theories, and assumptions within which the search for knowledge is conducted

Various levels of conceptual analysis

concepts

models or microtheories

macrotheories

ideological traditions / paradigms

Transnational

A configuration, which may apply to events, people, groups or organizations, that takes little or no account of national government or state borders

Politics

Process which power and resources are gained or loss

Government

An organization that exercises authority over people