TOPIC 1- The Nature of Politics Areas of Concentration 1. Defining what is politics 2.

Studying politics approaches to the study of politics Philosophical tradition Scientific tradition Recent development What is Politics? Politics can be examined as follows:A. Politics as the art of Government.
1. Prince Bismarck stated that Politics is not a science but an art, which meant

that it is the exercise of control within society through the making and enforcement of collective decisions. 2. This view supports that classical Greek notion of politics, i.e. politics is all about the state or the community as a whole.
3. In this view politics is associated with policy that is with formal or

authoritative decisions that establish a plan of action for the community.

4. Politics takes place within a polity, i.e. a society organized through the

exercise of political authority. For Aristotle, rule by many in the interest of all. Politics is therefore practiced through:A. The Cabinet B. The Legislature C. The Bureaucracy
5. The link between politics and the affairs of the state helps to explain why

negative images have often been attached to politics. Because politics is often associated with politicians B. Politics as the art of Government.
1. This concept moves politics from the narrow realm of government to

what is thought as public life or public affairs. Aristotle declared that man by nature is a political animal i.e. only within a political community can humans enjoy the good life.
2. Politics is therefore about developing a just society.

3. Creating a just society entails separating the public from the private. 4. The separation is the state and civil society The State Executive Legislature Judiciary Bureaucracy

5. These institutions are funded by public funds.

6. Civil society consists of what Edmund Burke called the little platoons.

Institutions such as the family groups, private businesses, trade unions, clubs, and community groups are private. These institutions are set up and funded by individual citizens to satisfy their own interest, rather than those of the larger society.
7. According to this perspective, politics does not and should not infringe

upon personal affairs and institutions. C. Politics as conflict and consensus 1. This concept is concerned about how decisions are made. Politics is viewed as resolving conflicts. Bernard Crick writes: Politics is the activity by which differing materials within a given unit of rule are conciliated by giving them a share in power in proportion to their importance to the welfare and the survival of the whole community. D. Politics as power 1. This is the broadest definition of politics and the most radical. This version sees politics as affecting all aspects of life and human existence. 2. Politics concerns the ways in which individuals gain the power to command the events that affect their lives.

A. More simply, politics concerns the ways in which people individually and collectively decide to get what they want; what they value. In this sense politics concerns the authoritative allocation of values. B. Power involves the capacity of A to get to B to do something that B might not otherwise do. 3. Resource is power. A. Means to have means to get what one wants refers to the power persons and things. In the modern world this often refers to command over economic resources. The command of mean concerns the ability to use or be used by the major structural resources of society. E.g. economic, demographic, cultural, constitutional structures. Structural power refers to collective power rather than individual power. B. Skills the personal and social strategies one develops either through inheritance or achievement to get what one wants. Political skills are developed through political processes. E.g. elections, parties, interest groups. C. Schemes refers to techniques of power. The prime technique concerns institutions and their performance. The use and development of governmental institution is a prime technique by which power is developed. Studying Politics Approaches to the study of politics.

1. Politics as an academic subject is very much a reflection of the fact that, in its broadest sense, politics is about how we make, preserve and amend the general rules through which we operate as a society. 2. How do we study politics? For students of Politics there exists a variety of tools that one can use to explain and understand the nature of politics. These are:1. Political Philosophy Approach 2. Political Science Approach Political Philosophy and Scientific Tradition. 1. Politics has long been divided as a discipline over the differences between the two dominant approaches namely political philosophy and political sciences.
2. Both rely on theory, the ways in which empirically oriented researchers

develop and use theoretical constructs is distinct from the methodology of political theory. 3. There are two ways that political philosophy and political science is differing from one another.
4. Political science is oriented towards finding out about what is while

political philosophy is concerned with questions about what ought to be. What ought to be- in other words, the attempt to create the ideal society. What is- concerned with what is happening now.
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Difference- concentration of analysis.

1) Political philosophy is primarily concerned with the study of political ideas, e.g. the place and order of values, the meaning of terms such as right, justice and freedom, often in the context of their times. Written political philosophy originated with the Greeks. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were Political philosophy- developed by Classical thinkers-Edmond Burke (referred to as founding father of conservative thought) etc. Socrates- lifetime was spent in trying to understand why certain things happen the way they do. Their solution was to change. To modify the political system that existed. Thomas Hobbs- mentioned difference in relationship between those who governed and those who were governed. Early writers set foundation for analysis of politics.
2) Primarily interested in the nature of justice.

3) Plato applied philosophy to the question of what is best, or what ought to be done in politics. Aristotle, comparing and classifying different forms of government, asked as well: How does politics actually work? Platos question led to the tradition of political philosophy or political theory, and political philosophers are still concerned with political values. Aristotle- talked about true forms and perverse forms.
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1) With this understanding a student of politics is able to create testable theory. By critically examining society, the philosopher builds the foundation for our understanding of the social order. It is through the process of critical thinking that we most often find solutions to problems. 2) Philosophy allows an opportunity to take a wide rather than a narrow view of society, a long-term versus a short-term view, and to step outside of the structure of our own experience in an attempt to gain greater knowledge about the political realm.
3) Political Science with its various methods was developed as a reaction

against political philosophy and the study of formal institutions. It is argued that political science is value-free, using quantitative tools and is facilitated by the development of data-processing technology that can reliably discover answers to questions about the political world. Political philosophy allows us to think outside the box. Political science looks at individual. Political philosophy is concerned to be very subjective.

1) Political science views political philosophy as operating in a world of subjectivity, value judgments and universals and concerns itself only with how an ideal society might always be structured.

2) Political scientists believe that it is impossible for the theorists to test and reject the premises on which they base their arguments.
3) The main difference between the two approaches is that the philosopher

applies logic to questions that have to do with the political order while the scientists rely on observation and measurement or Inductive Logic.
4) Inductive reasoning is a form of probable inference and involves the process

of developing scientific generalizations (called theories) from the observations of many cases.

Plato- talked about Atlantis. No way could we test the validity of the writings of political philosophers. Even if you tried to create it, one could never succeed. Plato referred to it as a blueprint of which to work towards. Political philosophical thinkers spend so much time thinking of what ought to be, that they do not realize what is happening.

1) Political science has been nearly obsessed with its ability to both develop and answer empirical questions.

2) In terms of methods, the political philosopher works in a world of

relationships between concepts, while the political scientists operate with observables. 3) It should be noted, that most of our knowledge about politics has come from theorists or philosophers. Long before the application of modern methodologies and statistical analysis, political thinkers studied the social order using both the normative and empirical. 4) Performing optimally empirically oriented research, then, effectively aids the political scientists by providing the basis for deriving normative conclusions that inform us as to how things should be.

Politics is about behaviour. Drawback of political science- is it possible to predict how a person is going to behave? Even political scientists have to go back to political philosophy. Events may occur that will depend on both theories. Not one at a time.

1) Philosophical considerations have at their root a question regarding how society might be best organized, resulting in a discussion of how society might ideally be organized, under the best circumstances.

2) This feature of political philosophy alone distinguishes this pursuit from empirical theory building, but does not in any way imply that our theories cannot have direct application to our understanding of politics. 3) Political science has aroused controversy. Critics have argued, and continue to argue, that human behaviour, particularly political behaviour cannot and should not be studied in the same way we study the natural environment for a number of reasons.

Faults in surveys, questionnaires. Recent Development: Tools of Political Development. A. Concepts. 1. A concept is a general idea about something usually expressed in a single word or a short-phrase. It is the tool with which we think, criticize, argue, explain and analyse. E.g. freedom, democracy and justice. 2. Problem with political concepts is that a single concept carries different meanings. E.g. Corruption Positive for New Zealand B. Models. Negative for Trinidad and Tobago

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1. A model is usually thought of as a representation of something,

usually on a smaller scale. Conceptual models are analytical tools; their value is that they are devices through which meaning can be imposed upon would otherwise be a confusing and disorganized collection of facts. 2. Facts do not always speak for themselves: they must be interpreted and must be organized. Models assist in the accomplishment of this task because that includes a network of relationships that highlight the meaning of relevant empirical data.
3. One of the most influential models in the political analysis is the

model of the political system developed by David Easton in the 1950s.

4. This model sets out to explain the entire political process, as well as

the function of major political actors, through the application of what is called Systems Analysis.

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Environment

Demands The Political System Outputs

Supports

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5. Eastons theory of a political system is general in two senses: a) He rejects the idea that different systems must be created for national and international politics. b) The first task of political science is the analysis of general problems common to all political systems. 6. The political system exists between inputs and outputs. Inputs include demands and supports. Demands are those request made by the citizenry and groups for services and or goods from the government. Supports are those means by which citizenry and groups validate their system, such voting (supports), paying taxes (demands) and generally conforming to policy decisions (compliance). 7. Outputs consists of decisions and actions of government, including the making of politics, passing of laws, the imposition of taxes and the allocation of public funds. 8. These outputs generate feedback, which in turn shapes the political system trends towards long-term equilibrium or political stability. C. Theory. 1. Theories and models are often used interchangeable in politics. However, a theory is a proposition. It offers a systematic explanation of a body of empirical data.

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2. In contrast, a model is merely an explanatory device; it is mere like a hypothesis that has to be treated. 3. PLURAL SOCIETY THEORY The pluralist theory is also referred to as a group theory. It begins with the proposition that the interaction among group is the central fact of politics. 4. According to pluralist theorists, public policy at any given time is the equilibrium reached in the struggle between the groups competing for policy advantages. 5. This equilibrium is determined by the relative influence of the groups. Changes in relative influence of any group can result in changes in policy to reflect their new influence. 6. The influence of groups is determined by their numbers, wealth, strength as an organization, leadership, access to decision makers and internal cohesion.
7.

What this means is that sometimes, politics can really make for strange bed fellows and groups that could otherwise be diametrically opposed on one issue, may band together with other groups on other issues.

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The Commonwealth Caribbean Context. 1. The term plural society is usually used about colonially created states with self-consciously culturally heterogeneous populations.
2. According to Furnivall (1948) and Smith (1964), one group tends to

dominate politics in a plural society. The population segments of plural societies are distinctive. i. ii. iii. iv. They have no external nation state to relate to realistically; They are not strong nationalist, but rather tend to identify with their ethnic group; Secession is normally not perceived as an alternative; Each population segment is internally divided according to class and possibly other criteria of rank.

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