There are several competing definitions of politics: 1) the art of government, 2) public affairs, 3) compromise and consensus, and 4) the distribution of power and resources. Politics can be understood as concerning the state and government, but this view restricts politics only to public institutions and does not account for political activities in other spheres like businesses, schools, and families. An alternative view sees politics as present in all social activities and aspects of human existence, involving issues of power. The study of politics uses concepts, models, and theories as analytical tools to make sense of empirical data in both domestic and global contexts.

1. WHAT IS POLITICS?

2. 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

3. • ‘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

4. • 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 (ie. family and domestic life).
Politics as public affairs

5. • 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

6. • This view sees politics at work in all social activities and
in every corner of human existence
• Politics is, in essence, power
• Advocates of this view include feminists and Marxists
Politics as the distribution
of power and resources

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

8. • 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

9. • 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

10. • 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