Politics

Politics is the study and conduct of decision-making power (who's got it, and who hasn't) at the inter-social and societal levels. Some even use the term politology. When considered at smaller scales, e.g. within a profession, it is indistinguishable from applied ethics or specialist ethical codes - for these issues see the list of ethics articles.

At whatever scale, politics is the rather imperfect way that we actually do coordinate individual actions for mutual (or strictly personal) gain. What distinguishes the political from the ethical or merely social is a much-debated question. Most theorists would acknowledge that to be political, a process has to involve at least some potential for use of force or violence - politics is about conflict that is about much more than theory and fashion. To win a political conflict always implies that one has taken power away from one group or faction to give it to another. Most would also acknowledge that political conflict can easily degrade to zero-sum games, with little learned or settled by conflict other than "who won and who lost":

Lenin said politics was about "who could do what to whom" (Russian "Kto-Kogo" for "Who-Whom"). As political scientist Harold Lasswell said, politics is "who gets what, when and how." It also concerns how we resolve moral conflicts that are sufficiently serious that they constitute a risk of social disruption - in which case commitment to a common process of arbitration or diplomacy tends to reduce violence - usually viewed as a key goal of civilization. Bernard Crick is a major theorist of this view and also of the idea that politics is itself simply "ethics done in public", where public institutions can agree, disagree, or intervene to achieve a desirable culmination or comprehensive (process) result.

In addition to government, journalists, religious groups, special interest groups, and economic systems and conditions may all have influence on decisions. Therefore, politics touches on all these subjects.

Authors of studies of politics have both reflected and influenced the political systems of the world. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince, an analysis of politics in a monarchy, in 1513, while living in a monarchy. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published "The Communist Manifesto" in 1848, a widely-read and highly influential pamphlet that formed the basis for Socialism and Communism throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Today, much study of politics focuses on democracies, and how their form affects the decisions they make.

Other lines of political inquiry attempt to answer philosophical questions such as;

• is there a moral justification for government.
• what is the purpose of government?
• is there any possible empirical or more formal method for evaluating and quantifying ethicality and morality of human actions that could augment or replace religion or authority or political contention in deciding what political leaders "should" do?
• is there an objective way to evaluate the quality of a decision, policy, leader or party?

These are ongoing debates that are millennia old.

As well as being influenced by these weighty matters, politics is also a social activity, and as such it is subject to the whims of fashion as any other.

Political science

Political scientists are academics who research the conduct of politics. They look at elections, public opinion, institutional activities (how legislatures act, the relative importance of various sources of political power etc), the ideologies behind various politicians and political organisations, how politicians achieve and wield their influence, and so on.

In American universities, the field of Political Science is divided into several subfields, typically American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Public Law, and Political Theory. Each subfield tends to overlap with other academic disciplines, such as philosophy, law, sociology, anthropology, and especially history.

Political Systems and Ideologies

Anarchism -- Anarcho-capitalism -- anarcho-communism -- anti-communism -- authoritarianism -- Capitalism -- classical liberalism -- Communism -- Conservatism -- Corporatocracy -- Democracy -- democratic socialism -- Green -- Fascism -- Federalism -- leftism -- Liberalism -- Libertarianism -- Libertarian socialism --Marxism -- Meritocracy -- Minarchism -- Nationalism -- National Socialism -- Oligarchy -- post-Communism -- Radical centrism -- Republicanism -- Socialism -- stalinism -- totalitarianism -- Theocracy

Political Entities

City -- City-state -- Confederation -- Country -- Empire -- Federation -- Government -- Nation state -- police state -- Prefecture -- Principality -- Province -- Republic -- State -- World Government

Political philosophy

The justification of the state -- Social contract theories -- Raw is moral philosophy -- Consequentialist justifications of the state -- The purpose of government -- Political virtues -- Non-violent_resistance

Classical and modern political theorists

Plato -- Aristotle -- Mustafa Kemal Ataturk -- John Locke -- Karl Marx -- John Stuart Mill -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- Johann Gottfried von Herder -- Lysander Spooner -- Henry David Thoreau -- Ludwig von Mises -- Thomas Hobbes -- David Hume -- Adam Smith -- Jean Bodin -- Baruch Spinoza -- Alexis deTocqueville -- Saint Augustine -- Thomas Aquinas -- Gandi

Contemporary Political Theorists

David Friedman -- Noam Chomsky -- John Rawls -- Jan Narveson -- David Gauthier -- Amartya Sen -- Jürgen Habermas -- James M. Buchanan -- Bernard Crick -- Michel Foucault -- Jane Jacobs -- Carol Moore -- Hannah Arendt -- Antonio Negri

Miscellaneous

International organization -- Corporate police state -- Crony capitalism -- European Union -- Police -- Propaganda -- U.S. Politics -- Political spectrum -- Political party-- Political economy -- Political parties of the world -- Techno-democracy -- Terrorism -- Political Compass -- Divide and conquer -- Political sociology -- List of years in politics

See Also

For politics of a particular country, visit List of politics by country articles

Referenced By