H1 Flashcards
Definition politics (Heywood)
The social activity through which people make, preserve and amend the general rules under which they live
Politics as an arena or process? Meaning of arena and process .. Will something become political ..
Politics as an arena (narrow: politics is associated with a certain arena or location) -
Politics as a process (broad: can take place in any, or all, social contexts)
4 different approaches defining politics (as an arena and process)
- Art of government
- Public affairs
- Compromise & consensus
- Power & the distribution of resources
Conception of politics: The art of government
Politics refers to the affairs of the ‘polis’ (= ‘city-state’); classically understood to imply the highest form of social organisation.
The study of politics is to study government, broader sense to study the exercise of authority.
Politics is associated with
‘policy’: with formal or authoritative decisions that establish a plan of action for the community.
Politics is what takes place within a polity: a system of social organisation centred on the machinery of government.
Most people or institutions can therefore be regarded as being ‘outside’ politics
Politics as public affairs
conception of politics on the basis of ‘public/private’ division
The institutions of the state (government, courts, the police, army, etc.) can be regarded as ‘public’ as they are responsible for the collective organisation of the community life.
Institutions such private businesses, clubs and community groups are considered
‘private’ as they are set up and funded by individual citizens to satisfy their own interests
An alternative divide, between the ‘public’ (politics, commerce, work, art, culture, etc.) and the ‘personal’ (family and domestic life), regards that politics should not undermine ‘personal’ affairs
Politics as compromise and consensus
Politics seen as particular means of resolving conflict by compromise, conciliation (verzoening) and negotiation, rather than through force of power.
Consensus, which is a broad agreement by a wide range of individuals or groups on certain principles as opposed to a precise or exact agreement, is important in this conception.
The view of politics as compromise and consensus can be traced back to Aristotle’s beliefs that ‘polity’ is the ideal system of government, as it is ‘mixed’ in the sense that it combines both aristocratic and democratic features. The key to politics is therefore the dissemination of power.
Politics as power.
It sees politics at work in all social activities and in every corner of human existence rather than constraining it to a particular sphere (i.e. the government, the state or the public realm).
Politics take place at every level of social interaction and concerns the production, distribution and use of resources in the course of social existence.
Politics is, therefore, power: the ability to achieve a desired outcome or to influence the behaviour of others.
scarcity: the resources available to satisfy human needs and desires are always limited; struggle over scarce resources, power as the means through which this struggle is conducted
Power
the ability to achieve a desired outcome or to influence the behaviour of others
Faces of power Heywood
1) power as decision-making (= conscious actions that in some way influence the content of decisions);
(2) as agenda-setting (= the ability to prevent decisions being made; non-decision-making);
(3) as thought control (= the ability to influence another by shaping what he/she thinks, wants or needs; ideological indoctrination or psychological control)
Approaches to the study of politics
- Philosophical tradition
- Empirical tradition
- Behaviouralism
- Rational-choice theory
- New institutionalism
Normative
the prescription of values and standards of conduct; ‘what should be’
Objective
external to the observer; demonstrable; unbiased
Philosophical tradition
ethical, prescriptive or normative questions
how should politics be organized?
‘prescriptive’, as it makes judgements and offers recommendations.
Writings from e.g. Plato and Aristotle have formed the basis of ‘traditional’ politics in which literary analyses of major thinkers is primary. Such analysis are, however, not objective (external to the observer; demonstrable; unbiased).
empirical
based on observation and experiment
empirical tradition
deals with descriptive questions
how and why is politics organized in a specific way
‘descriptive’ as it seeks to analyse and explain
Behaviouralism
Concerned with the belief that social theories should be constructed only on the basis of observable behaviour, providing quantifiable data for research.
Analysis should be ‘value-free’, thus, not influenced by normative beliefs.
As the focus of analysis is on observable behaviour, it is much more difficult to describe existing political arrangements (such as democracy), causing a value bias (= sympathies or prejudices that affect human judgement; distortion).
Rational-choice theory
approach assumes that individuals are rational utility maximizers: they act in ways which best secure their goals and that these goals reflect their self-interest.
It entails the application of economic principles (e.g. prisoners dilemma) to political behaviour with the goal to analyse puzzles about individual behaviour.
Critics, however, questioned its basic assumptions. It may, for instance, overestimate human rationality in that it ignores the fact that people seldom possess a clear set of preferred goals and rarely make decisions based on full and accurate knowledge. In addition, it pays insufficient attention to social and historical factors
institution
well-established body with a formal role and status; more broadly, a set of rules that ensure regular and predictable behaviour
New institutionalism
Institutionalism, which focused on the rules, procedures and formal organisation of government
political structures are thought to shape political behaviour,
Interest, however, was revived in the 1980s with the emergence of ‘new institutionalism’. This approach still believed that institutions matter, in the sense that political structures are thought to shape political behaviour, but adjusted our understanding of what constitutes an institution. Institutions are considered to be well-established body with a formal role and status; more broadly, a set of rules that ensure regular and predictable behaviour. Political institutions are not longer thought of as political organisations, but rather as sets of informal or formal rules, which guide or constrain certain behaviour. Institutions are also embedded in a particular normative and historical context. Just as actors within an institutional setting are socialized to accept key rules and procedures, the institution itself operates within a larger and more fundamental body of assumptions and practices. Critics, however, argue that political actors are viewed by this approach as ‘prisoners’ of the institutional contexts in which they operate.
concept
a general idea about something, expressed in a single word or short phrase
Concepts are tools used to think, criticize, argue, explain and analyse; in order to make sense of the world
ideal types
mental construct in which an attempt is made to draw out meaning from an otherwise almost infinitely complex reality through the presentation of a logical extreme
If we wish to study the state of democracy in India, then our first task will be to define the concept of democracy with the help of its essential and typical characteristics.
essentially contested concepts
As certain words have different meanings to different people, it should be accepted that there are competing versions of many political concepts and that there will be no neutral or settled definition
model
A model is a theoretical representation of empirical data (usually on a smaller scale) that aims to advance understanding by highlighting significant relationships and interactions
theory
a proposition (yet to be tested); a systematic explanation of empirical data, usually presented as reliable knowledge (unlike a hypothesis)
paradigm
pattern or model that highlights relevant features of a particular phenomenon - set of glasses
intellectual framework comprising interrelated values, theories and assumptions, within which the search for knowledge is conducted.
