Political Science 114
Political Science 114
Sem$s&er 1: Par& 1 S&udy No&es
by Am&né Wes,els
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Week 2: Lecture 1
Chapter 1: What is
Politics?
What Is Poli,cs: an ‘essen)ally contested’ concept as the term has a number of
acceptable/legi)mate meanings; different no)ons/concepts (general idea about something; a
departure point for thinking about something) provide different angles.
‘Making, pres$rving and amending ;f gen$ral s;cial
rules.’
E.g. rules/legisla)on parliament makes or amends, determining acceptable behaviour; traffic laws
cons)tu)ng general social rules; traffic police ensure prescribed appropriate behaviour is
maintained/preserved
‘PAi&Bcs as &he ar& ;f g;vernmen&.’
The exercise of control within society through the making and enforcement of collec)ve decisions -
perhaps the classical defini)on of poli)cs; to study poli)cs is, in essence, to study government, or,
more broadly, to study the exercise of authority.)
• Art = not neatly outlined; requires nego)a)on, interpreta)on, reading a situa)on,
responding.
• However: art of government; in state ins)tu)ons (e.g. parliament, cabinet,
bureaucracy/departments in government); direct aOen)on to process of lawmaking,
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decision making, role of bureaucracy. There is a tendency to treat poli)cs as the equivalent
of party poli)cs.
‘C;mpr;mise and c;nsensuE.’
• Looking at the nature of decision making; poli)cs as a way of conflict reslu)on (e.g.
Nego)a)ons process of transi)on from apartheid to democracy); poli)cs as an ac)vity for
concilia)on and community survival -- posi)ve view of poli)cs)
• ‘Poli)cs [is] the ac)vity by which differing interests within a given unit of rule are conciliated
by giving them a share in power in propor)on to their importance to the welfare and the
survival of the whole community.’
• There are bound to be disagreements with the existence of different
opinions/diversity/scarcity and yet people recognise that working together is necessary to
uphold or influence rules.
• One concep)on of poli)cs is being resolvable through consensus, though, is heavily biased
towards the form of poli)cs that takes place in western pluralist democracies: in effect,
poli)cs is equated to electoral choice and party compe))on and this model has liOle to tell
us about one-party states or military regimes.
• Failure to understand that poli)cs as a process of compromise and reconcilia)on may have
contributed to a growing popular disenchantment with democra)c poli)cs across much of
the developed world; expressed in the rise of populism and emergence of a style of poli)cs
that disdains compromise and consensus and places much more emphasis on conflict (e.g.
Elec)on of donald trump)
‘PAi&Bcs as public afGairs.’
Where is poli)cs prac)ced? - shi[ing of arenas where we think poli)cs are relevant
• People disagree about what it is that makes social interac)on poli)cal in terms of where it
takes place (e.g. within government) and what ac)vity it involves (e.g. peacefully resolving
conflict).
• In public, what is studied as poli)cs is only the government apparatus; designa)on indicates
there is no studying of civil society in the private sector (e.g. business, unions, clubs) which is
therefore ‘non-poli)cal’ - tradi)onal dis)nc)on between state and civil society.
• However with a different conceptualisa)on: public realm includes government, commerce,
work, art culture - broadens no)on of the poli)cal and transfers the economy from private
to public; private/private realm includes family and domes)c life (i.e. no poli)cs in these
spaces)
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• This no)on has been challenged by the feminist perspec)ve that gender inequality is
maintained because of the perceived ‘natural’ sexual division of labour
• If poli)cs only takes place through government apparatus, most people, most ins)tu)ons
and most social ac)vi)es can be regarded as being ‘outside’ poli)cs - but to portray poli)cs
as an essen)ally statebound ac)vity is to ignore the increasingly important interna)onal or
global influences on modern life.
• ‘Poli)cs is the most important form of human ac)vity because it involves interac)on
amongst free and equal ci)zens, however poli)cs as public ac)vity has also been portrayed
as a form of unwanted interference’
‘PAi&Bcs as p;wer.’
Sees poli)cs at work in all social ac)vi)es and in every corner of human existence.
• What does it mean to have power? Who gets what, when and how? The ability to influence
the behaviour of others; at its broadest, poli)cs concerns the produc)on, distribu)on, and
use of resources in the course of social existence; power used for struggle for scarce
resources.
• Faces of power: thinking of power as authority to make decisions; look at how governments
choose what policy concerns they focus on/leave off the agenda (agenda se`ng); power as
substan)ally more hidden in thought control (e.g. ideological indoctrina)on or psychological
control, marke)ng, manipula)on)
• Advocates of the view of poli,cs as power: feminists (viewed poli)cs as a process; one
related to the exercise of power over others) and Marxists (apparatus of the state rooted in
the class system; exploita)on of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie)
• Such a nega)ve view of poli)cs reflects the essen)ally liberal percep)on that poli)cal power
is corrup)ng, because it encourages those ‘in power’ to exploit their posi)on for personal
advantage and at the expense of others. However, these nega)ve implica)ons could be said
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