Politics

Politics refers to a set of activities

associated with the governance of a
country, or an area. It involves making
decisions that apply to members of a
group.[1]

It refers to achieving and exercising

positions of governance—organized
control over a human community,
particularly a state.[2] The academic
study focusing on just politics, which is
therefore more targeted than general
political science, is sometimes referred
to as politology(not to be confused with
politicology, a synonym for political
science).

In modern nation-states, people have

formed political parties to represent their
ideas. They agree to take the same
position on many issues and agree to
support the same changes to law and the
same leaders.[3]

An election is usually a competition

between different parties.[4] Some
examples of political parties worldwide
are: the African National Congress (ANC)
in South Africa, the Democratic Party (D)
in the United States, the Conservative
Party in the United Kingdom, the
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in
Germany and the Indian National
Congress in India.

Politics is a multifaceted word. It has a

set of fairly specific meanings that are
descriptive and nonjudgmental (such as
"the art or science of government" and
"political principles"), but does often
colloquially carry a negative
connotation.[1][5][6] The word has been
used negatively for many years: the
British national anthem as published in
1745 calls on God to "Confound their
politics",[7] and the phrase "play politics",
for example, has been in use since at
least 1853, when abolitionist Wendell
Phillips declared: "We do not play politics;
anti-slavery is no half-jest with us."[8]

A variety of methods are deployed in

politics, which include promoting one's
own political views among people,
negotiation with other political subjects,
making laws, and exercising force,
including warfare against
adversaries.[9][10][11][12][13] Politics is
exercised on a wide range of social
levels, from clans and tribes of traditional
societies, through modern local
governments, companies and institutions
up to sovereign states, to the
international level.
A political system is a framework which
defines acceptable political methods
within a given society. The history of
political thought can be traced back to
early antiquity, with seminal works such
as Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Politics
and the works of Confucius.

Etymology

Women voter outreach from 1935.

The word comes from the same Greek
word from which the title of Aristotle's
book Politics (from Ancient Greek:
Πολιτικά, romanized: Politiká or Polis,
meaning "affairs of the cities"). The book
title was rendered in Early Modern
English in the mid-15th century as
"Polettiques";[14] it became "politics" in
Modern English. The singular politic first
attested in English 1430 and comes from
Middle French politique, in turn from Latin
politicus,[15] which is the Latinization of
the Greek πολιτικός (politikos), meaning
amongst others "of, for, or relating to
citizens", "civil", "civic", "belonging to the
state",[16] in turn from πολίτης (polites),
"citizen"[16] and that from πόλις (polis),
"city".[16]

Classifications

Formal politics refers to the operation of

a constitutional system of government
and publicly defined institutions and
procedures.[17] Political parties, public
policy or discussions about war and
foreign affairs would fall under the
category of Formal Politics.[17] Many
people view formal politics as something
outside of themselves, but that can still
affect their daily lives.[17]
Semi-formal politics is politics in
government associations such as
neighborhood associations, or student
governments where student government
political party politics is often important.

Informal politics is understood as

forming alliances, exercising power and
protecting and advancing particular
ideas or goals. Generally, this includes
anything affecting one's daily life, such
as the way an office or household is
managed, or how one person or group
exercises influence over another.[17]
Informal Politics is typically understood
as everyday politics, hence the idea that
"politics is everywhere".[17]
History of state politics
The history of politics is reflected in the
origin, development, and economics of
the institutions of government.

The state

The origin of the state is to be found in

the development of the art of warfare.
Historically speaking, all political
communities of the modern type owe
their existence to successful warfare.[18]

Kings, emperors and other types of

monarchs in many countries including
China and Japan, were considered divine.
Of the institutions that ruled states, that
of kingship stood at the forefront until
the American Revolution put an end to
the "divine right of kings". Nevertheless,
the monarchy is among the longest-
lasting political institutions, dating as
early as 2100 BC in Sumeria[19] to the
21st century AD British Monarchy.
Kingship becomes an institution through
the institution of hereditary monarchy.

The king often, even in absolute

monarchies, ruled his kingdom with the
aid of an elite group of advisors, a
council without which he could not
maintain power. As these advisors and
others outside the monarchy negotiated
for power, constitutional monarchies
emerged, which may be considered the
germ of constitutional government.[20][21]

The greatest of the king's subordinates,

the earls and dukes in England and
Scotland, the dukes and counts in the
Continent, always sat as a right on the
council. A conqueror wages war upon the
vanquished for vengeance or for plunder
but an established kingdom exacts
tribute. One of the functions of the
council is to keep the coffers of the king
full. Another is the satisfaction of military
service and the establishment of
lordships by the king to satisfy the task
of collecting taxes and soldiers.[22]
Themes

Activism is a form of politics.

Forms of political
organization

There are many forms of political

organization, including states, non-
government organizations (NGOs) and
international organizations such as the
United Nations. States are perhaps the
predominant institutional form of
political governance, where a state is
understood as an institution and a
government is understood as the regime
in power.

According to Aristotle, states are

classified into monarchies, aristocracies,
timocracies, democracies, oligarchies,
and tyrannies. Due to changes across the
history of politics, this classification has
been abandoned.

All states are varieties of a single

organizational form, the sovereign state.
All the great powers of the modern world
rule on the principle of sovereignty.
Sovereign power may be vested on an
individual as in an autocratic government
or it may be vested on a group as in a
constitutional government. Constitutions
are written documents that specify and
limit the powers of the different branches
of government. Although a constitution is
a written document, there is also an
unwritten constitution. The unwritten
constitution is continually being written
by the legislative and judiciary branch of
government; this is just one of those
cases in which the nature of the
circumstances determines the form of
government that is most appropriate.[23]
England did set the fashion of written
constitutions during the Civil War but
after the Restoration abandoned them to
be taken up later by the American
Colonies after their emancipation and
then France after the Revolution and the
rest of Europe including the European
colonies.

There are many forms of government.

One form is a strong central government
as in France and China. Another form is
local government, such as the ancient
divisions in England that are
comparatively weaker but less
bureaucratic. These two forms helped to
shape the practice of federal
government, first in Switzerland, then in
the United States in 1776, in Canada in
1867 and in Germany in 1871 and in
1901, Australia. Federal states
introduced the new principle of
agreement or contract. Compared to a
federation, a confederation has a more
dispersed system of judicial power.[24] In
the American Civil War, the argument by
the Confederate States that a State could
secede from the Union was deemed
inconstitutional by the supreme court.[25]

According to professor A. V. Dicey in An

Introduction to the Study of the Law of the
Constitution, the essential features of a
federal constitution are: a) A written
supreme constitution in order to prevent
disputes between the jurisdictions of the
Federal and State authorities; b) A
distribution of power between the
Federal and State governments and c) A
Supreme Court vested with the power to
interpret the Constitution and enforce the
law of the land remaining independent of
both the executive and legislative
branches.[26]

Global politics

Global politics include different practices

of political globalization in relation to
questions of social power: from global
patterns of governance to issues of
globalizing conflict. The 20th century
witnessed the outcome of two world
wars and not only the rise and fall of the
Third Reich but also the rise and relative
fall of communism. The development of
the atomic bomb gave the United States
a more rapid end to its conflict in Japan
in World War II. Later, the hydrogen bomb
became the ultimate weapon of mass
destruction.

Global politics also concerns the rise of

global and international organizations.
The United Nations has served as a
forum for peace in a world threatened by
nuclear war, "The invention of nuclear
and space weapons has made war
unacceptable as an instrument for
achieving political ends."[27] Although an
all-out final nuclear holocaust is radically
undesirable for man, "nuclear blackmail"
comes into question not only on the
issue of world peace but also on the
issue of national sovereignty.[28] On a
Sunday in 1962, the world stood still at
the brink of nuclear war during the
October Cuban Missile Crisis from the
implementation of U.S. vs Soviet Union
nuclear blackmail policy.

According to political science professor

Paul James, global politics is affected by
values: norms of human rights, ideas of
human development, and beliefs such as
cosmopolitanism about how we should
relate to each:
 Cosmopolitanism can be
defined as a global politics
that, firstly, projects a sociality
of common political
engagement among all human
beings across the globe, and,
secondly, suggests that this
sociality should be either
ethically or organizationally
privileged over other forms of
sociality.[29]

Political corruption
William Pitt the Elder, speaking before
the British House of Lords, 9 January
1770, observed: "Unlimited power is apt
to corrupt the minds of those who
possess it."[30] This was echoed more
famously by John Dalberg-Acton over a
century later: "Power tends to corrupt,
and absolute power corrupts
absolutely."[31]

Political corruption is the use of

legislated powers by government
officials for illegitimate private gain.
Misuse of government power for other
purposes, such as repression of political
opponents and general police brutality, is
not considered political corruption.
Neither are illegal acts by private persons
or corporations not directly involved with
the government. An illegal act by an
officeholder constitutes political
corruption only if the act is directly
related to their official duties and/or
power.[32] The corruption in third World
dictatorships is usually more blatant. For
example, government cronies may be
given exclusive right to make arbitrage
profit by exploiting a fixed rate
mechanism in government currency. In
democracies corruption is often more
indirect. Trade union leaders may be
given priority in housing queues, giving
them indirectly a worth of millions.[33]
Forms of corruption vary, but include
corruption, extortion, cronyism, nepotism,
patronage, graft, and embezzlement.
While corruption may facilitate criminal
enterprise it may be legal but considered
immoral.[34] Worldwide, bribery alone is
estimated to involve over 1 trillion US
dollars annually.[35] A state of
unrestrained political corruption is known
as a kleptocracy, literally meaning "rule
by thieves".[36]

Political parties

A political party is a political

organization that typically seeks to attain
and maintain political power within
government, usually by participating in
electoral campaigns, educational
outreach or protest actions. Parties often
espouse an expressed ideology or vision
bolstered by a written platform with
specific goals, forming a coalition among
disparate interests.[37]

Politics as an academic
discipline

Political science, the study of politics,

examines the acquisition and application
of power.[38] Political scientist Harold
Lasswell defined politics as "who gets
what, when, and how".[39] Related areas
of study include political philosophy,
which seeks a rationale for politics and
an ethic of public behaviour, as well as
examining the preconditions for the
formation of political communities;[40]
political economy, which attempts to
develop understandings of the
relationships between politics and the
economy and the governance of the two;
and public administration, which
examines the practices of
governance.[41] The philosopher Charles
Blattberg, who has defined politics as
"responding to conflict with dialogue,"
offers an account which distinguishes
political philosophies from political
ideologies.[42]
The first academic chair devoted to
politics in the United States was the chair
of history and political science at
Columbia University, first occupied by
Prussian émigré Francis Lieber in
1857.[43]

Freedom of Hope for Politics poster

Political values
Political views differ on average across nations. A
recreation of the Inglehart–Welzel Cultural Map of
the World based on the World Values Survey.

Several different political spectra have

been proposed.

Left–right

Political analysts and politicians divide

politics into left wing and right wing
politics, often also using the idea of
center politics as a middle path of policy
between the right and left. This
classification is comparatively recent (it
was not used by Aristotle or Hobbes, for
instance), and dates from the French
Revolution era, when those members of
the National Assembly who supported
the republic, the common people and a
secular society sat on the left and
supporters of the monarchy, aristocratic
privilege and the Church sat on the
right.[44]

The meanings behind the labels have

become more complicated over the
years. A particularly influential event was
the publication of the Communist
Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels in 1848. The Manifesto suggested
a course of action for a proletarian
revolution to overthrow the bourgeois
society and abolish private property, in
the belief that this would lead to a
classless and stateless society.[45][46]

The meaning of left-wing and right-wing

varies considerably between different
countries and at different times, but
generally speaking, it can be said that the
right wing often values tradition and
inequality while the left wing often values
progress and egalitarianism, with the
center seeking a balance between the
two such as with social democracy,
libertarianism or regulated capitalism.[47]

According to Norberto Bobbio, one of the

major exponents of this distinction, the
Left believes in attempting to eradicate
social inequality – believing it to be
unethical or unnatural[48] while the Right
regards most social inequality as the
result of ineradicable natural inequalities,
and sees attempts to enforce social
equality as utopian or authoritarian.[49]
Some ideologies, notably Christian
Democracy, claim to combine left and
right wing politics; according to Geoffrey
K. Roberts and Patricia Hogwood, "In
terms of ideology, Christian Democracy
has incorporated many of the views held
by liberals, conservatives and socialists
within a wider framework of moral and
Christian principles."[50] Movements
which claim or formerly claimed to be
above the left-right divide include Fascist
Terza Posizione economic politics in Italy
and Peronism in Argentina.[51][52]

Chart showing the political positions Authoritarian to

Libertarian and Left-wing to Right-wing on a 2D
plane.
Authoritarian–libertarian

Authoritarianism and libertarianism refer

to the amount of individual freedom each
person possesses in that society relative
to the state. One author describes
authoritarian political systems as those
where "individual rights and goals are
subjugated to group goals, expectations
and conformities",[53] while libertarians
generally oppose the state and hold the
individual as sovereign. In their purest
form, libertarians are anarchists [54], who
argue for the total abolition of the state,
of political parties and of other political
entities, while the purest authoritarians
are, by definition, totalitarians who
support state control over all aspects of
society. [55]

For instance, classical liberalism (also

known as laissez-faire liberalism,[56]) is a
doctrine stressing individual freedom
and limited government. This includes
the importance of human rationality,
individual property rights, free markets,
natural rights, the protection of civil
liberties, constitutional limitation of
government, and individual freedom from
restraint as exemplified in the writings of
John Locke, Adam Smith, David Hume,
David Ricardo, Voltaire, Montesquieu and
others. According to the libertarian
Institute for Humane Studies, "the
libertarian, or 'classical liberal,'
perspective is that individual well-being,
prosperity, and social harmony are
fostered by 'as much liberty as possible'
and 'as little government as
necessary.'"[57] For anarchist political
philosopher L. Susan Brown "Liberalism
and anarchism are two political
philosophies that are fundamentally
concerned with individual freedom yet
differ from one another in very distinct
ways. Anarchism shares with liberalism a
radical commitment to individual
freedom while rejecting liberalism's
competitive property relations."[58]

See also
 Book: Politics

Index of law articles

Index of politics articles – alphabetical
list of political subjects
List of years in politics
Outline of law
Outline of political science –
structured list of political topics,
arranged by subject area
Political lists – lists of political topics
Politics of present-day states
List of political ideologies

Notes
1. Rod Hague; Martin Harrop (31 May
 2013). Comparative Government and
Politics: An Introduction . Macmillan
International Higher Education.
pp. 1–. ISBN 978-1-137-31786-5.
2. "Political | Definition of Political by
Merriam-Webster" . Merriam-
webster.com. Retrieved 25 February
2018.
3. Giovanni Sartori (2005). Parties and
Party Systems: A Framework for
Analysis . ECPR Press. p. 53.
ISBN 978-0-9547966-1-7.
4. Richard Rose; Neil Munro (1 April
2009). Parties and Elections in New
European Democracies . ECPR
Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-9558203-2-
8.
5. William A. Joseph (14 March 2014).
Politics in China: An Introduction,
Second Edition . Oxford University
Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-19-938483-
9.
6. Birkland (18 May 2015). Introduction
to the Policy Process . M.E. Sharpe.
p. 6. ISBN 978-0-7656-2731-5.
7. God save our lord the king, The
Gentleman's Magazine 15 October
1745
 8. Johnston, Alexander; Woodburn,
James Albert (1903). "American
Orations: V. The anti-slavery
struggle" .
9. Bo Hammarlund (1985). Politik utan
partier: studier i Sveriges politiska liv
1726-1727 . Almqvist & Wiksell
International. p. 8.
10. Linda P. Brady (1 October 2017). The
Politics of Negotiation: America's
Dealings with Allies, Adversaries, and
Friends . University of North Carolina
Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-4696-3960-
4.
11. Mary Hawkesworth; Maurice Kogan
(7 November 2013). Encyclopedia of
Government and Politics: 2-volume
Set . Routledge. p. 299. ISBN 978-1-
136-91332-7.
12. Steven L. Taylor (1 June 2012). 30-
Second Politics: The 50 most
thought-provoking ideas in politics,
each explained in half a minute . Icon
Books Limited. p. 130. ISBN 978-1-
84831-427-6.
13. Shannon L. Blanton; Charles W.
Kegley (1 January 2016). World
Politics: Trend and Transformation,
2016–2017 . Cengage Learning.
p. 199. ISBN 978-1-305-50487-5.
14. The Diets and Sayings of the
Philosophers (Early English Text
Society, Original Series No. 211 ,
1941; reprinted 1961), p. 154: "the
book of Etiques and of Polettiques".
15. Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short. "A
Latin Dictionary" . Perseus Digital
Library. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
16. Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott.
"A Greek-English Lexicon" . Perseus
Digital Library. Archived from the
original on 24 September 2015.
Retrieved 19 February 2016.
17. Painter, Joe; Jeffrey, Alex. "Political
Geography" .
18. Carneiro, Robert L. (21 August 1970).
"A Theory of the Origin of the State".
Science. 169 (3947): 733–738.
Bibcode:1970Sci...169..733C .
doi:10.1126/science.169.3947.733 .
PMID 17820299 .
19. "Sumerian King List" (PDF).
Retrieved 7 April 2012.
20. "European Absolutism And Power
Politics" , International World History
Project, 1998, retrieved 22 April 2017
21. "Constitutional Monarchy" . British
Monarchist League Ltd. Retrieved
22 April 2017.
22. Jenks, Edward. A history of politics.
pp. 73–96. "The origin of the State, or
Political Society, is to be found in the
development of the art of military
warfare."
23. "Britain's unwritten constitution" . The
British Library. Retrieved 25 February
2019.
24. "Confederation vs Federation –
Difference and Comparison" . Diffen.
Retrieved 25 February 2018.
25. Texas v. White , 74, 1869, p. 700,
retrieved 25 February 2019
26. Jenks, Edward (1900). A history of
politics . J. M. Dent & Co. pp. 1–164.
Retrieved 19 February 2016.
27. Rabinowitch, Eugene (June 1973).
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists .
Educational Foundation for Nuclear
Science, Inc. p. 13. ISSN 0096-3402 .
"...the rationale of traditional patterns
of world politics."
28. Dulles, Allen (2006). The Craft of
Intelligence . Globe Pequot. p. 224.
ISBN 978-1-59921-577-8. "...using
'nuclear blackmail' as a threat to
intimidate other countries."
29. James, Paul (2014). Globalization
and Politics, Vol. 4: Political
Philosophies of the Global . London:
Sage Publications. pp. x. Retrieved
19 February 2016.
30. Safire, William, ed. (2008). Safire's
Political Dictionary. Oxford University
Press. p. 566.
31. Dalberg-Acton, John (Lord Acton).
Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton,
April 5, 1887 . Published in Historical
Essays and Studies, edited by J. N.
Figgis and R. V. Laurence (London:
Macmillan, 1907)
32. "Political Corruption Law &
Definition" . USLegal. Retrieved
26 November 2016.
33. Tino Sanadaji, Tio tusen miljarder:
Skuldkalaset och den förträngda
baksmällan (2018), kapitel 8
34. https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/corruption
35. "African corruption 'on the wane' " .
BBC News – Business.
36. Andrew Wedeman (3 April 2012).
Double Paradox: Rapid Growth and
Rising Corruption in China . Cornell
University Press. p. 61. ISBN 0-8014-
6474-9.
37. Robin T. Pettitt (24 June 2014).
Contemporary Party Politics .
Macmillan International Higher
Education. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-137-
41264-5.
38. Safire, William (2008). Safire's
Political Dictionary . Oxford
University Press US. p. 566.
ISBN 978-0-19-534334-2. "Power
tends to corrupt; absolute power
corrupts absolutely."
39. Schmidt, Barbara A.; Bardes, Mack
C.; Shelley, Steffen W. (2011).
American Government and Politics
Today: The Essentials (2011–2012
Student ed.). Boston: Wadsworth,
Cengage Learning. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-
538-49719-0.
40. Laurie, Timothy; Stark, Hannah
(2017), "Love's Lessons: Intimacy,
Pedagogy and Political Community" ,
Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical
Humanities, 22 (4): 69–79
41. "Public administration - Principles of
public administration" . Encyclopedia
Britannica. Retrieved 25 February
2019.
42. Blattberg, Charles (July 2001).
"Political Philosophies and Political
Ideologies". Public Affairs Quarterly.
15 (3): 193–217. ISSN 0887-0373 .
SSRN 1755117 .
43. Farr, James; Seidelman, Raymond
(1993). Discipline and history .
University of Michigan Press.
ISBN 978-0-472-06512-7. "...a chair
at Columbia in 1857 as professor of
history and political science, the very
first of its kind in America."
44. Andrew Knapp and Vincent Wright
(2006). The Government and Politics
of France. Routledge.
45. Jon M. Shepard (12 January 2009).
Cengage Advantage Books:
Sociology . Cengage Learning.
p. 214. ISBN 0-495-59901-8.
46. Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich (1
January 2002). The Communist
Manifesto . Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-
044757-6.
47. Daniel J. Levinson. "Conservatism
and Radicalism" . International
Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.
Retrieved 19 February 2016.
48. Gelderloos, Peter (2010). Anarchy
Works.
49. Bobbio, Norberto, Left and Right: The
Significance of a Political Distinction
(translated by Allan Cameron), 1997,
University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-
226-06246-5
50. Roberts and Hogwood, European
Politics Today, Manchester University
Press, 1997
51. Tore., Bjorgo, (2014). Terror from the
Extreme Right . Hoboken: Taylor and
Francis. ISBN 9781135209308.
OCLC 871861016 .
52. "bale p.40" (PDF). Retrieved
25 February 2018.
53. Markus Kemmelmeier; et al. (2003).
"Individualism, Collectivism, and
Authoritarianism in Seven Societies".
Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology. 34 (3): 304–322.
doi:10.1177/002202210303400300
5.
54. afaq. "150 years of Libertarian" .
Anarchists Writers.
55. Dictionary.com
56. Ian Adams, Political Ideology Today
(Manchester: Manchester University
Press, 2001), 20.
57. What Is Libertarian? , Institute for
Humane Studies Archived 24 March
2007 at the Wayback Machine
58. L. Susan Brown. The Politics of
Individualism: Liberalism, Liberal
Feminism, and Anarchism. Black
Rose Books Ltd. 1993

References
Connolly, William (1981). Appearance
and Reality in Politics. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
James, Raul; Soguk, Nevzat (2014).
Globalization and Politics, Vol. 1: Global
Political and Legal Governance .
London: Sage Publications. Retrieved
19 February 2016.
Ryan, Alan: On Politics: A History of
Political Thought from Herodotus to the
Present. London: Allen Lane, 2012.
ISBN 978-0-7139-9364-6
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