 first
of all, 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 (Heywood, Politics, p.4)
 Heywood identifies 4 key ways to think about
politics





politics means the study of government
Government refers to institutions and
structures constructing the state
politics takes place within polity – very
narrow conception
polity - a society organized through the
exercise of political authority
disadvantage of this way – many people,
groups and institutions can be considered
to be outside the politics
 much
broader category
 public versus private sphere, here lies the
distinction between political and nonpolitical
 What constitutes division between public and
private?
 civil society vs. state
 political vs. personal
 politics
as public activity is good for society
(Aristotle,Hannah Arendt, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, John Stuart Mill)
 liberals – politics as public activity is viewed
as unwanted interference in individual life
 Liberals preffer civil society over state





process to resolve conflicts
compromise and negotiation instead of
force
Problem: overtly optimistic view, this form
of politics occurs in Western democracies
Requires procedural and substantive
consensus
normative goal
 Politics
is about power
 relations on power basis are everywhere –
politics takes place at every level of social
interaction
 includes social and economic interactions
 Who got power and why and how do they use
it?
 power


conscious action influencing the content of
decision
Robert Dahl – Who Governs? Democracy and
Power in an American City
 power


as agenda setting
ability to prevent decisions being made
necessity to set or control the agenda
 power

as decision-making
as thought control
ability to influence thinking
 Politics
as Vocation
 he distinguishes power and domination
 power can possess everybody with ability to
force somebody to do something against the
will
 domination – people obey somebody due to
authority

authority is perceived as legitimate
 distinguished
on the basis of legitimacy
 traditional domination
 charismatic domination
 legal domination
 modern
societies shared many same
features; they can be distinguished by
organization of power
 life is shaped by relationships among people
– political aspect of this relationship is the
most important
 Politics is the part of social life where orders
are issued and taken
 this
course – Politics as government
 Government as the executive (Government
vs. government)
 Government as executive, legislature and
judiciary (power vs. powers)
 Government as the state (includes army,
police etc.)
 Governance and governmental process
 Politics
used to be part of philosophy, law
amd history
 from late 19th century – turn of politics into
a scientific discipline
 UNESCO congress (Paris 1948) – political
science formally established




Political theory – history of theories,
political though
Political institutions
Political parties and groups, public opinion
(includes political participation)
International relations
 stems
from political philosophy
 questions what should, ought or must be,
rather than what is
 study of ideas, doctrines and morality
 terms like freedom, justice, civil rights
 It cannot be objective
 Voegelin, Arendt, Schmit
 based
on real experience
 emphasis on objectivity and neutrality to
values
 Aristotle, Machiavelli – first proponents
 follows thinking of positivism (Auguste
Comte)
 social sciences should adopt methods of
natural sciences
 oriented
on looking for historicallly
conditioned truth
 refers to Hegel‘s conception of history
(dialectic) and Marx‘s societal theory
 Heywood,
Andrew. 2007. Politics.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, chapter 1.