This document provides an overview of an introductory politics course being offered at ADA University in Fall 2015. It discusses different approaches to defining politics, including viewing it as the art of government, public affairs, compromise and consensus, or the distribution of power and resources. It also outlines different approaches to studying politics, such as philosophical, empirical, behavioral, and critical approaches. Finally, it notes how globalization has expanded the scope of political activity beyond domestic realms.

1. Understanding Politics
POL 102
BA Course (School Core undergraduate)
Fall Semester 2015
Dr. Azər Babayev
School of Public and International Affairs
(SPIA)
ADA University

2. WHAT IS POLITICS?

3. Problems with defining politics
• Politics is a loaded term – few people come to politics
without preconceptions
• It is also an essentially contested concept, seen
variously as
1) The art of government
2) Public affairs
3) Compromise and consensus
4) Distribution of power and resources

4. Problems with defining politics

5. • ‘Politics is not a science… but an art’ (Chancellor
Bismarck)
• Politics is understood as that which concerns the state
• To study politics is to study government – and the
exercise of authority
• This offers a highly restrictive view of politics – most
institutions and activities (businesses, schools, families)
are seen as ‘non-political’
Politics as the art of government

6. • Distinction between ‘the political’ and ‘the non-political’
coincides with the division between an essentially public
sphere of life and what can be thought of as a private
sphere.
• Traditional division between public and private realm
conforms to division between state and civil society
• An alternative divide distinguishes between ‘the political’
and ‘the personal’
• Politics does not and should not infringe on personal
affairs (i.e. family and domestic life).
Politics as public affairs

7. Politics as public affairs

8. • Politics is seen as a means of resolving conflict > by
compromise and negotiation rather than through force
• Based on faith in the efficacy of debate and discussion,
as well as on the belief that society is characterized by
consensus, rather than by irreconcilable conflict
• A failure to understand politics as a process of
compromise may have contributed to a growing popular
disenchantment with democratic politics across much of
the developed world.
Politics as compromise
and consensus

9. Politics as the distribution
of power and resources

10. • This view sees politics at work in all social activities and
in every corner of human existence
• All politics is, in essence, a struggle for power > power is
the same in politics as energy in physics
• Advocates of this view include feminists and Marxists
Politics as the distribution
of power and resources

11. • The philosophical tradition
• The empirical tradition
• Behaviouralism
• Rational-choice theory
• New institutionalism
• Critical approaches
Approaches to
the study of politics

12. • Concepts help us to classify objects by recognizing that
they have similar forms or similar properties.
• Models include a network of relationships that highlight
the meaning and significance of relevant empirical data
• Theories offer a systematic explanation of a body of
empirical data
Tools of political analysis

13. Tools of political analysis –
Levels of analysis

14. Tools of political analysis –
An example for model

15. • A distinction has traditionally been made between the
domestic and international realms of politics
• The state-based paradigm of politics has come under
pressure as a result of recent trends and developments,
including globalization
• The increase in transnational flows has expanded the
parameters and complexity of political activity
Politics in a global age

16. Politics in a global age

17. Thank you!
• Questions & comments?

18. Up next
• Political Ideas and Ideologies