What is politics | Different Approaches to Interpreting Politics

Aristotle said that man is a political animal. In Aristotle’s view, politics covers the entire existence of man, in short, in the event of competition with others, the effort to establish dominance and control over the scarce resources of the society is termed as politics, the same power comes in the field of politics. Which is used either by the government itself or which is used to influence the government.

What is politics

The word political has a multi-layered meaning. Its first meaning is related to ancient Greece. This is where the word “politica” originated from the word “polis”. Literally polish means city, but it is understood as a place Where there is a common world or to put it more simply, there is a community, therefore political means all kinds of activities within or by this community. More specifically, political refers to decision making by and within the community.

• Politics is also concerned with what is decided about. When we use the word political in this first sense, we are not just talking about life, but we are talking about a good life within the community. Everyone lives with a certain concept of the good life, so we can ask who will be members of the community and why?

There is no definite meaning of politics, that is, here we will try to understand politics by keeping it in different context, the word politics itself is a comprehensive approach, we can see it on the following grounds:-

common man’s perception of politics

It is often assumed that politics is concerned only with the public sphere, that is, it has nothing to do with elections to parliament and cabinets, to other spheres of human activity. Politics is a pervasive social process that goes on at many levels of social life. In politics, activities like public meetings, water processions, slogan demonstrations, demands, strikes, tear gas and lathicharge come or its attention goes towards the side of election campaigns or rallies in which false promises are made, it is mainly a common practice. The attitude of the citizen shows his views towards politics.

traditional conception of politics

The matter of the police or city state was of great importance to the Greek thought of Plato, Aristotle and their contemporaries. Greek thinkers believed that the state “comes into existence to govern the life of man and remains for the accomplishment of good life”.

Aristotle had said that man is a political animal by nature, a man who does not live in the state or who does not need the state, he will be either a pure animal or a super human.

Everything that a man does to achieve a good life in the state, the activities in which he participates or the rules, institutions and organizations he makes, Aristotle has considered all of them as the subject of the study of politics, this is what we call the traditional concept of politics in this era. In this, all the social relations of man and all aspects of social life were studied under politics.

modern concept of politics

Today in the study of politics all the activities of human social life are not considered. Rather, only those activities are considered that influence public policy and public decision. In this way, politics indicates the activities of the general public through which different groups try to establish harmony in their conflicting interests.

But modern writers feel that politics is a special activity of human life, it is not only an activity of the state but an activity connected with the whole social organisation.

Therefore, in today’s era, politics is not considered appropriate for the formal institutions of the state and their functions, but is considered a comprehensive social process.

Different Approaches to Interpreting Politics

Various approaches are adopted to understand and define politics, but if we talk in the context of political science, mainly three approaches are given the most importance, which are discussed below: –

Liberal approach: – Under this, politics is considered as a means of reconciling conflicting interests. Liberalism had to promote those ideas in the social, economic and political field which proved helpful in the establishment of capitalism.

Marxist Approach:- Under this, politics is considered as the field of class struggle. Marxism gave importance to class struggle and held the view that in this struggle the working class would have to organize and end the capitalist system and bring socialism by establishing social ownership over the major means of production so that a classless society could emerge.

communitarian approach:- Under this, considering the person as an integral part of the community, politics is considered as a means of achievement of common interest. The proponents of communitarianism believe that the individual’s own existence and personality are the product of social life. Individuals are not isolated units from each other, but they are interconnected points in the shape of society.

Conclusion

In short, it can be said that the word political has multi-level meaning-

(a) The collective power to decide about every aspect of the good life in the community.

(b) The power of some groups to control or subjugate other groups.

(c) Political is concerned with the use of state power to achieve common interest/values.

(d) It is concerned with the use of state power by one group to establish its dominance over other groups.

References:-

Bhargava, R. (2008) ‘What is Political Theory’, in Bhargava, R and Acharya, A. (eds.) Political Theory: An Introduction. New Delhi:

Bhargava, R, ‘Why Do We Need Political Theory’, in Bhargava, R. and Acharya, A. (eds.) Political Theory: An Introduction. New Delhi: Pearson Longman,

O.P. Gauba (2019),  ‘An Introduction to Political Theory, National Publishing House.