WHAT IS POLITICS?

Many people think politics is where the elite and most influential people use their wealth to rule the poor. Others also perceived that through politics a person will be elect as a president of a country for the sole purpose of that person causing a financial change in the country. This ideology is mostly found in African politics.

Politics in its broader sense is the activity through which people make, preserve and amend the general rules under which they live. According to Harold Lasswell

Politics is the determinate of who gets ‘’ what; When and How”. Already politics is exciting because people disagree; they disagree about how they should live. Who should get what? How should power and other resource be distributed? Should society be based on cooperation or conflict?

‘’Who gets what” in politics means; For instance when there is budget reading by the government, this determines which regions gets water, jobs, or schools. ’’When” in politics also means when there is initiative; people ask is this year or next year. ‘How’’ in politics rise a concern such as how will government fund a project.

For Aristotle, this made politics the ‘’master science”; that is, nothing less than the activity through which human beings attempts to improve their lives and create the good society. So above all, it is a social activity. Politics is a conflict resolution, than its achievement, as not all conflicts are, or can be resolved, never the less, the preserve of diversity (we are all not alike] and scarcity (there is never enough to go around], this ensure that politics cannot be taken away from human condition.

Also according to David Easton which I coat; Politics is the ‘’authoritative allocation of resources that are value. T his tells us that resources are scarce and this is very true, whiles other definitions of politics makes us to understand that; it is the exercise of power, the exercise of authority, the making of collective decisions, the practice of deception and manipulation.

Truly, politics has brought change, development and dynamics in most countries. For instance, does ‘’politics” refer to a particular way in which rules are made, preserved and amended (that is peacefully, by debate] or to all such processes. Similarly, is politics practised in all social contexts and institutions, or only in certain one (that is government and public life].From this perspective, politics is worth practicing because it gives different views such as:

Politics the art of government.

Politics as public affairs.

Politics as compromise and consensus.

Politics as power and the distribution of resources.

Akpene Lovia Baku
PUC/151050