What's Politics?

 DEFINITION OF POLITICS.

The study of politics accumulates knowledge where “knowledge” is the original meaning of science. The study of political science has developed other related areas such as the political parties; political interest groups also other permanent groups. Political science is an academic field that studies and discusses about politics. Politics here refers to laws, methods, and practice of groups that responsible in making the decisions for the state.

“Politics” derived from the Greek words ‘Polis” which means “a city” (Moten and Islam, 2005). The defining characteristics of politics involved the use power in making a common decision for a group of people (Shively, 2005).

Politics is, accordingly, an art rather than a science. Politics may be found in a variety of associations and groups, whether the group be a trade union, a country or an international organization. Politics is about the efforts, both successfully and unsuccessful, by some people to gain and exercise power over others. Politics also consist of people acting politically, by organizing political interest group and trying to induce governments to act in ways that will promote their interest over those of their opponents. Within every society or among societies, politics is the process of competition and co-operation by which values gain priority (Neil Abraham, 2007).

Politics has been understood differently by different thinkers and within different traditions. Politics has been viewed as the art of government or as ‘what concerns the state’, as the conduct and management of public affairs, as the resolution of conflict through debate and compromise, and as the production, distribution and use of resources in the course of social existence. There is considerable debate about the realm of ‘the political’. Conventionally, politics has narrowly been seen as embracing institutions and actors operating in a ‘public’ sphere concerned with the collective organization of social existence. However, when politics is understood in terms of power-structured relationships, it may be seen to operate in the ‘private’ sphere as well.

A variety of approaches have been adapted to the study of politics as an academic discipline. These include political philosophy or the analysis of normative theory, an empirical tradition particularly concerned with the study of institutions and structures, attempts to introduce scientific rigor through behavioral analysis, and a variety of modern approaches including the use of rational-choice theory. The study of politics is scientific to the extent that it is possible to gain objective knowledge about the political world by distinguishing it between facts and values. This task is nevertheless hampered by the difficulty of gaining access to reliable data, by values that are implicit in political models and theories, and by biases that operate within all students of politics.

Nowadays, politics play a very important part in our lives. Without politics, people in the state will not know how to govern a state, how to protect their rights and how to perform their responsibility. Politics is knowledge that meets all the human needs such as power and living together peacefully.