What Is Politics Essay Research Paper What

What Is Politics Essay, Research Paper

What Is Politics

On hearing the word politics, what usually springs to mind are images of

government, politicians and their policies or more negatively the idea

of corruption and dirty tricks. The actual definition seems to have been

obscured and almost lost by such representations and clich.s that tend

not to pinpoint the true essence, which defines this thing, called

politics. In order to make an attempt at a definition of politics a

systematic approach is required. To begin with, a brief historical

overview will be considered, to understand the origins of politics.

Following this, different core concepts, which are imperative to a

definition of politics, will be discussed, in the hope to discover a

true and fair interpretation of the word politics.

The word politics comes from the Greek word “polis”, meaning the state

or community as a whole. The concept of the “polis” was an ideal state

and came from the writings of great political thinkers such as Plato and

Aristotle. In his novel “The Republic”, Plato describes the ideal state

and the means to achieve it. Hence, the word politics originally has

connotations in the ways in which to create the ideal society. An ideal

society is in practice a rather difficult aim and even an impossible aim

to achieve. Politics implies measures which could and should, in the

views of their devisor, be implemented in the hope to create a better

society, than that which is already present. The very fact that Plato

and Aristotle saw imperfections in the societies in which they lived,

prompted them to write their political philosophies. These philosophies

provided the first written recognition of politics. In his writings his

“The Politics”, Aristotle states that “Man is by nature a political

animal”(The Politics, 1) in another words, it lies deep within the

instinct of man. It is almost primal. Due to his nature man should

consider and realise his role within the “polis”. So according to

Aristotle Politics is not a dreamt up concept, but rather an inherent

feature of mankind.

To begin with, the basest premise that underpins the notion of politics

should be considered in order to arrive at a fair definition. Man is

self-preserving by nature. He thinks and acts, whether that is as an

individual or as a group who share interests, with foremost regard to

his own interests. Self-perpetuation is the number one rule. He

therefore possesses his own interests, ideas and preferences, which may

differ to those of his contemporaries. In the “Blackwell Encyclopaedia

of Political Thought”, Miller supports this premise:

“Politics presupposes a diversity of view, if not about ultimate aims,

at least the best ways of achieving them”. (Miller, 1987, p.390)

Politics consider this view of man, in that on meeting others whose

interests oppose his own, conflict is bound to occur. What could be the

cause of this conflict in interest. The world has its limits; all

material wealth within it is exhaustible. Who therefore, gets how large

a share, of those resources, which are present on the earth in limited

supply. If man were permitted to act on and pursue his own selfish

interests, snatching that, which he desires, a society would quickly

become under rule of violence. Politics is a way of combating the

degradation of society into a violent and unstructured mess by reducing

it to be governed by the primitive instincts of man in order to resolve

conflict. Leftwich states in his essay entitled “Politics: people,

resources and power” from his book “What is Politics.”

“…politics compromises all the activities of co-operation and

conflict, within and between societies, whereby the human species goes

about organising the use, production and distribution of human, natural

and other resources in the production and reproduction of its biological

and social life.” (Leftwich, 1984, p.64-65)

Politics therefore may be defined a means to resolving this conflict

through various means, which will be tackled later in this essay. If

however one was to take this premise of the existence of opposing

opinions as false, conflict between individuals should never occur and

politics would not be required to resolve problems. To justify politics

however, this premise must be true and through simply considering, the

society in which we live it is evident, that conflict exists. In his

definition of politics in the “Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political

Thought” Miller advocates this view, stating that if “people (were to)

agree spontaneously on a course of action…they (would) have no need to

engage in politics.”(Miller, 1987, p.390)(Added) Thus, politics exists

due to the broad spectrum of ideas and opinions within any society.

To resolve conflicting opinions, a consensus must be

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