lecture 2_what is politics & the study of politics

7/31/2019 Lecture 2_What is Politics & the Study of Politics

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What is Politics?


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OUTLINE

1. Defining politicsi. Politics as the art of government

ii. Politics as public affairs

iii. Politics as compromise and consensusiv. Politics as power and the distribution of resources.

2. Studying politics

i. Approaches to the study of politicsii. Can the study of politics be scientific?

iii. Concepts, models and theories


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Politics: Conflict and/or Cooperation?

People disagree about both what it is that makes socialinteraction political, and how political activity canbest be analyzed and explained.

Heywoods definition: Politics, in its broadest sense, isthe activity through which people make, preserve, andamend the general rules under which they live.

Compare Harvey Mansfields characterization:

Politics means taking sides; it ispartisan. Not onlyare there sidestypically liberal and conservative inour daybut also they argue against each other, so thatit is liberals versus conservatives.


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Politics as the art of government Politics as public affairs

Politics as compromise and consensus Politics as power and the distribution of

resources.

Different Conceptions of

Politics


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Politics as the Art of Government

This is a state-centered view of politics. Politics iswhat governments or states do. This meansthat most people, most institutions and most social

activities can be regarded as being outsidepolitics. Businesses, schools and other educationalinstitutions, community groups, families and so onare in this sense nonpolitical.


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Machiavelli

Italian Renaissancepolitical philosopherand statesman,secretary of the

Florentine republic,whose most famouswork, The Prince

(1531), brought him areputation as anatheist and animmoral cynic.


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Carl von Clausewitz

The Prussian general andmilitary thinker, whoseworkOn War (1832) hasbecome one of the mostrespected classics on

military strategy. Anotable line from hisbook: War is only acontinuation of statepolicy by other means.

Cf. Mao Tse-Tung:Politics is war withoutbloodshed while war ispolitics with bloodshed.


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Otto von Bismarck

Prime minister ofPrussia (186273,187390) and founderand first chancellor

(187190) of theGerman Empire.

Known for his famous

line "politics is the artof the possible."


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Realpolitik

The adjective Machiavellian subsequently cameto represent the Realpolitik principles ofMachiavelli. It has been used in a pejorative sense

to describe those who prefer expediency tomorality and practice duplicity in statecraft or ingeneral conduct.

Both Clausewitz and Bismarck are known as major

figures of the Realpolitik tradition.


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The Cynic View of Politics

Another implication of this state-centricconception of politics is that politics is thought ofas a pejorative word.

It conjures up images of trouble, disruption andeven violence on the one hand, and deceit,manipulation and lies on the other.


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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as acontest of principles.Ambrose Bierce, TheDevil's Dictionary

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking partin affairs which properly concern them. Paul Valery

The more you read and observe about this Politicsthing, you got to admit that each party is worse thanthe other. The one that's out always looks the best.Will Rogers


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One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be apolitician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed,slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one ora bad one. Henry Miller

A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for hiscountry. Texas Guinan

[A politician is] a person skilled in the art of compromise.Usually an elected official who has compromised to getnominated, compromised to get elected, and compromisedrepeatedly to stay in office. Dick Gregory


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We would all like to vote for the best man but he is never acandidate. Frank M. Hubbard

You can lead a man to Congress, but you can't make himthink. Milton Berle

In our age there is no such thing as "keeping out ofpolitics." All issues are political issues, and politics itself is amass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.George Orwell


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Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding itwhether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, andapplying the wrong remedy. Ernest Benn

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which nopreparation is thought necessary. Robert LouisStevenson

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. Ihave come to realize that it bears a very closeresemblance to the first. Ronald Reagan


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Perception of Politics as a Frivolous Activity

The whole art of the political speech is to put 'nothinginto it. It is much more difficult than it sounds. HilaireBelloc

Politics is made up largely of irrelevancies. DaltonCamp

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You haveto be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb

enough to think it's important. Eugene McCarthy

I have come to the conclusion that politics are too seriousa matter to be left to the politicians. Charles De Gaulle


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Politics as Public Affairs

A second and broader conception of politics movesit beyond the narrow realm of government to whatis thought of as public life or public affairs. In

other words, the distinction between the politicaland the nonpolitical coincides with the divisionbetween an essentiallypublic sphere of life andwhat can be thought of as aprivate sphere.


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Aristotle

InPolitics,Aristotledeclared that man is bynature a political animal,

by which he meant that it isonly within a political

community that humanbeings can live the goodlife. From this viewpoint,then, politics is an ethical

activity concerned withcreating a just society. Itis what Aristotle called themaster science.


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Etymology of Politics

The notion of politics is derived from the Greekwordpolis meaning a city-state such as Athens orSparta. Affiliated words such aspoliteia,politika,

and politike techne have the following meanings:a. politeia: constitution, political regime, republic;

b. politika: political activities, anything in relation withthe state, constitution, political regime;

c. politike techne: political skill; management skill.


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One view of the public/private divide

The traditional distinction between the public realm andthe private realm conforms to the division between thestate and civil society.

On the basis of this public/private division, politics isrestricted to the activities of the state itself and theresponsibilities that are properly exercised by publicbodies.


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An Alternativeview of the public/private divide

An alternative public/private divide is sometimes definedin terms of a further and more subtle distinction, namelythat between the political and the personal

Although civil society can be distinguished from the state, itnevertheless contains a range of institutions that arethought of as public in the wider sense that they are openinstitutions, operating in public, to which the public hasaccess.


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Hannah Arendt

This conception of politics assomething positive andpublic activity was firmlyendorsed by Hannah Arendt,a German-born Americanpolitical theorist.

She argued in The HumanCondition (1958) that politicsis the most important form ofhuman activity because itinvolves interaction amongstfree and equal citizens. Itthus gives meaning to lifeand affirms the uniquenessof each individual.


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Vclav Havel

Another example is VclavHavel: Genuinepoliticspolitics worthy ofthe name and the onlypolitics I am willing todevote myself tois

simply a matter of servingthose around us: servingthe community andserving those who willcome after us. Its deepest

roots are moral because itis a responsibilityexpressed throughaction.


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Politics as Compromise and Consensus

The third conception of politics relates to the way inwhich decisions are made. Specifically, politics is seenas a particular means of resolving conflict: that is, bycompromise, conciliation and negotiation, rather than

through force and naked power. Politics becomes theprocess of conflict resolution."

In this view, the key to politics is a wide dispersal ofpower. Accepting that conflict is inevitable and socialgroups possess and compete for power, they must beconciliated; they cannot merely be crushed.


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James Madison

There are two methodsof curing the mischiefs offaction: the one, byremoving its causes; theother, by controlling its

effects.The inference towhich we are brought is,that the causes of factioncannot be removed, andthat relief is only to besought in the means ofcontrolling its effects.The Federalist#10


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Politics as Power

The fourth definition of politics is both thebroadest and the most radical. Rather thanconfining politics to a particular sphere (the

government, the state or the public realm) thisview sees politics at work in all social activities andin every corner of human existence.

In this sense, politics takes place at every level of

social interaction; it can be found within familiesand amongst small groups of friends just as muchas amongst nations and on the global stage.


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Distribution of Power and Resources

At its broadest, politics concerns the production,distribution and use of resources in the course of socialexistence. Politics is, in essence, power: the ability toachieve a desired outcome, through whatever means.This notion was neatly summed up in the title of Harold

LasswellsbookPolitics: Who Gets What, When, How?(1936). From this perspective, politics is about diversity and

conflict, but the essential ingredient is the existence ofscarcity: the simple fact that, while human needs and

desires are infinite, the resources available to satisfythem are always limited. Politics can therefore be seen asa struggle over scarce resources, and power can be seenas the means through which this struggle is conducted.


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Approaches to the study of politics

Can the study of politics be scientific?

Concepts, models and theories

Studying Politics


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The Philosophical Tradition

The term politikusedboth by Plato andAristotle meant the

knowledge, the art, orsome other capacity thatis devoted to the politicalaffairs. For both Plato

and Aristotle, the task ofpolitical expertise wasnormative.


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Values

What we today call values or as the ancientscalled ends were central to the philosophicalapproach to political science.

Values are the sort of things that can inducepersonal and social conflict by stirring humanemotions such as anger, envy, and hatred. Disputesover quantifiable facts do not necessarily give

rise to such emotions. Socrates points this out in Platos dialogue

Euthyphro.


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Euthyphro

Socrates: What is the difference about,best ofmen, that makes for enmity and anger? Let'sconsider as follows. If you and I should differ about

numberwhich of two groups of things is greaterwould our difference about these things make usenemies and angry at each other? Or would we goto calculation and quickly settle it, at least about

such things as these? Euthyphro: Quite so .


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Euthyphro

Socrates: Then what would we differ about andwhat decision would we be unable to reach, that wewould be enemies and angry at each other? Perhapsyou have nothing ready to hand, but consider while I

speak whether it is these things: the just and theunjust, and noble and shameful, and good and bad.Isn't it because we differ about these things and can'tcome to a sufficient decision about them that we

become enemies to each other, whenever we do, bothI and you and all other human beings.

Euthyphro: Yes, this is the difference, Socrates,and about these things.


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Anti-Busing Protests, Boston City Hall, 1976.

The young man holding theflagpole, now a labor foremanliving in Maine, vividly recallsthe blind anger thatmotivated himanger aimed,he says, at the urban policiesthat were ruining the close-knit South Bostonneighborhood where hedgrown up: When the busingstarted, it was, You cant havehalf your friendsthats the

way it was put towards us,

Rakes says. They took halfthe guys and girls I grew upwith and said, Youre going toschool on the other side oftown. Nobody understood itat [age] 15.


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The Empirical Tradition

The empirical approach to political analysis ischaracterized by the attempt to offer a dispassionateand impartial account of political reality. The

approach is descriptive in that it seeks to analyzeand explain, whereas the normative approach isprescriptive in the sense that it makes judgmentsand offers recommendations.


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The Scientific Tradition

In the 1870s, political science courses wereintroduced in the universities of Oxford, Paris andColumbia, and by 1906 theAmerican Political

Science Reviewwas being published.

The enthusiasm for a science of politics peaked in the1950s and 1960s with the emergence, most stronglyin the USA, of a form of political analysis that drewheavily uponbehaviouralism. For the first time,

this gave politics reliably scientific credentials,because it provided what had previously beenlacking: objective and quantifiable data against

which hypotheses could be tested.


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Can the study of politics be scientific?

The attraction of a science of politics is clear. Itpromises an impartial and reliable means ofdistinguishing truth from falsehood, therebygiving us access to objective knowledge about thepolitical world. The key to achieving this is todistinguish between facts (empirical evidence)and values (normative or ethical beliefs). Factsare objective in the sense that they can bedemonstrated reliably and consistently; they can

be proved. Values, by contrast, are inherentlysubjective, a matter of opinion.


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Objective Facts: What are they good for?

An objective fact often involves some kind ofnumeric value or undisputable piece of information.

That the capital of the United States is Washington,

DC is an undisputable information. That the current population of the US is about 300

million and the US citizens without health insurancecoverage is about 47 million are also facts.

But can facts alone say anything meaningful aboutthe political reality without making use of value-laden concepts?


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THE SACK OF ROME

In 410 CE, the Goths invadedand sacked Rome. Thepsychological effect among theRomans was one of shock: Thecity to which the whole world

fell has fallen. If Rome canperish, what can be safe?lamented St. Jerome. TheBritish monk Pelagius, who wasin Rome when the attack

occurred, gave this report:Every household had its grief,and an all-pervading terrorgripped us.


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St. Augustine, the bishop of Hippo (354-430 CE)

The non-Christian Romansblamed the abandonment ofthe worship of ancient Romangods and the ascendance ofChristianity for this calamity.

Against their indictment ofChristianity, Saint Augustinepointed out that Rome hadalready been destroyed twice inthe past when the Roman gods

were actively worshipped. Thisshows that Christianity couldnot be responsible for the sackof Rome.


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Interpreting September 11: Competing Narratives

On September 11,2001, America wasattacked. But while weknow what happened

on that tragic day,many of us dontunderstand why ithappened.


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The Official View

Americans are asking, whydo they hate us? They hatewhat we see right here inthis chamber -- ademocratically electedgovernment. Their leadersare self-appointed. Theyhate our freedoms -- ourfreedom of religion, our

freedom of speech, ourfreedom to vote andassemble and disagree witheach other.


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The Religious-Conservative View

On a Christian televisionprogram, Rev. Jerry Falwellmade the following statement:

I really believe that the

pagans, and the abortionists,and the feminists, and thegays and the lesbians who areactively trying to make that analternative lifestyle, the ACLU,

People For the American Way,all of them who have tried tosecularize America. I point thefinger in their face and sayyou helped this happen.


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To clarify his remarks, Falwell later said that hebelieves the ACLU and other organizations whichhave attempted to secularize America, haveremoved our nation from its relationship withChrist on which it was founded. . . I thereforebelieve that that created an environment whichpossibly has caused God to lift the veil of

protection which has allowed no one to attackAmerica on our soil since 1812.


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D. James Kennedy in his bookWhy Was AmericaAttacked?: Maybe the timing of Rev. Falwell'sstatements could have been a little better, but Isuspect that no matter when he would have spoken

the truths he did he would have been maligned fordoing so. He also made the mistake of not includingthe sins of Christians in with the other groups hediscussed. Rev. Falwell has apologized for his

comments. However, I think that in spite of that, weneed to recognize that what he said has been said inchurches across the nation for years. What he said

was the truth, just not the whole truth.


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The Left-Liberal View

Douglas Kellner, a UCLA Professor:

In retrospect, the events of September 11 can beseen as a textbook example of blowback, a

concept developed in a book with this title byChalmers Johnson (2000) who uses it to describethe unintended consequences of aggressivemilitary and covert policies, a shorthand term for

describing that a nation reaps what it sows.


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CONCLUSION

The inescapable presence of diversity (we are notall alike) and scarcity (there is never enough to goaround) ensures that politics is an inevitablefeature of the human condition.

The study of politics is scientific to the extent thatit is possible to gain objective knowledge about thepolitical world by distinguishing between facts andvalues. This task is nevertheless hampered by the

difficulty of gaining access to reliable data, byvalues that are implicit in political models andtheories, and by biases that operate within allstudents of politics.

lecture 2_what is politics & the study of politics

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