Welcome to POL C 212

Modern Political Concepts

Shamuel Tharu (VFAC)

Trained in Economics, Politics and
International Relations
PhD work is on terrorism law and
international politics
Taught at Delhi University and Nelson
Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict
Resolution

Text Book
Heywood, A. (2000) Key Concepts in Politics.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Reference books
Tansey, S. D. (2000) Politics: The Basics.
London: Routledge.
Bhargava, R. & Acharya, A. (Eds.) (2008)
Political Theory: An Introduction. New Delhi:
Pearson.

Evaluation
Component
Test I

Test II

Duratio Weightage
n
(%)
1 hr
20

1hr

Written
assignment (2)
Comprehensive
Examination

20

Date
and Remarks
Time
25th Sept
Open Book
2012
12:20-1:30
pm
6th Nov 2012
12:20-1:30
pm

(10+10) 20

3 hrs

40

To be submitted
before the class test
10th Dec
2012
Forenoon

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.
Politics is thus inextricably linked to the
phenomena of conflict and cooperation.

 On the one hand, the existence of rival

opinions, different wants, competing needs
and opposing interests guarantees
disagreement about the rules under which
people live.
On the other hand, people recognise that, in
order to influence these rules or ensure that
they are upheld, they must work together
with others hence Hannah Arendts (1906
75) definition of political power as acting in
concert

 This is why the heart of politics is often

portrayed as a process of conflict resolution,
in which rival views or competing interests are
reconciled with one another.
However, politics in this broad sense is better
thought of as a search for conflict resolution
than as its achievement, as not all conflicts
are, or can be, resolved.
From this perspective, politics arises from the
facts of diversity (we are not all alike) and
scarcity (there is never enough to go round).

Different notions
However, four quite different notions of
politics can be identified.

 First, it is associated specifically with the art of

government and the activities of the state.
This is perhaps the classical definition of
politics, developed from the original meaning
of the term in Ancient Greece (politics is
derived from polis, literally meaning citystate).
In this view politics is an essentially statebound activity, meaning that most people,
most institutions and most social activities can
be regarded as being outside politics.

 Second, politics is viewed as a specifically

public activity in that it is associated with the
conduct and management of the communitys
affairs rather than with the private concerns
of the individual. Such a view can be traced
back to Aristotles (38422 BCE) belief that it is
only within a political community that human
beings can live the good life.

 Third, politics is seen as a particular means of

resolving conflict, that is, by compromise,
conciliation and negotiation, rather than
through force and naked power. This is what is
implied when politics is portrayed as the art
of the possible, and it suggests a distinction
between political solutions to problems
involving peaceful debate and arbitration, and
military solutions.

 Fourth, politics is associated with the

production, distribution and use of resources
in the course of social existence.
In this view politics is about power: the
ability to achieve a desired outcome, through
whatever means. Advocates of this view
include feminists and Marxists.

What is the scope of politics

The what is politics? debate highlights quite
different approaches to political analysis and
exposes some of the deepest and most
intractable conflicts in political thought. In the
first place it determines the very subject
matter and parameters of the discipline itself.

Traditional view
The traditional view that politics boils down to
what concerns the state has been reflected
in the tendency for academic study to focus
upon the personnel and machinery of
government.
To study politics is in essence to study
government or, more broadly, to study what
David Easton (1981) called the authoritative
allocation of values

Politics as Power
However, if the stuff of politics is power and
the distribution of resources, politics is seen to
take place in, for instance, the family, the
workplace, and schools and universities, and
the focus of political analysis shifts from the
state to society

Politics and Society

Definitions of politics that relate it to the art
of government, public affairs or peaceful
compromise are based upon an essentially
consensus model of society, which portrays
government as basically benign and
emphasises the common interests of the
community

 Views of politics that emphasise the

distribution of power and resources tend to
based upon conflict models of society that
stress structural inequalities and injustices.
Karl Marx (181883) thus referred to political
power as merely the organised power of one
class for oppressing another,

 while the feminist author Kate Millett (1970)

defined politics as power-structured
relationships, arrangements whereby one
group of persons is controlled by another.

Morality of Politics
Finally, there is disagreement about the moral
character of political activity and about
whether it can, or should, be brought to an
end.

 On the one hand, to link politics to

government is to regard it as, at worst, a
necessary evil, and to associate politics with
community activity and non-violent forms of
conflict resolution is to portray it as positively
worthwhile, even ennobling.

 On the other hand, those who link politics to

oppression and subjugation often do so to
expose structures of inequality and injustice in
society, which, once overthrown, will result in
the end of politics itself.