Political Science
POLITICAL SCIENCE 111
*WHAT IS POLITICS?
Politics is exciting because people disagree about all aspects of life. For Aristotle, this made politics the ‘master science’; i.e. nothing less than the activity through which human beings attempt to improve their lives and create a good society.
POLITICAL SCIENCE= POLITICS + SCIENCE
Politics can be defined in two broad senses;
POLITICS AS AN ACTIVITY—This involves the processes whereby people in the society try to make, preserve and amend the laws that regulates their lives in a society.
POLITICS AS A DISCIPLINE OF STUDY—This involves our attempt to understand the activities, processes, setbacks etc that comes with the practice of politics.
Politics is however defined in such different ways : as the exercise of power, the exercise of authority , the making of collective decisions , the allocation of scarce resources, the practice of deception and manipulation etc...
THE FOUR DIFFERENT VIEWS OF POLITICS
*politics as an art of government
*politics as public affairs
*politics as compromise and consensus
*politics as power and the distribution of resources.
POLITICS AS AN ART OF GOVERNMENT
The exercise of control within society through the making and enforcement of collective decisions and processes. This refers to how the state manages the life of people living in a society. This view is advanced in the writings of the influential US political scientist David Easton who defined politics as the ‘authoritative allocation of values’.
POLITICS AS PUBLIC AFFAIRS
The distinction between ‘the political’ and ‘non political’ coincides with the division between an essential public sphere of life and what can be thought of as a private sphere. In Politics, Aristotle declared that ‘man is by nature a political animal’, by which he meant that it is only within a political community that human beings can live ‘the good life’.
POLITICS AS COMPROMISE AND CONSENSUS
In this view, politics is seen as a particular means of
*WHAT IS POLITICS?
Politics is exciting because people disagree about all aspects of life. For Aristotle, this made politics the ‘master science’; i.e. nothing less than the activity through which human beings attempt to improve their lives and create a good society.
POLITICAL SCIENCE= POLITICS + SCIENCE
Politics can be defined in two broad senses;
POLITICS AS AN ACTIVITY—This involves the processes whereby people in the society try to make, preserve and amend the laws that regulates their lives in a society.
POLITICS AS A DISCIPLINE OF STUDY—This involves our attempt to understand the activities, processes, setbacks etc that comes with the practice of politics.
Politics is however defined in such different ways : as the exercise of power, the exercise of authority , the making of collective decisions , the allocation of scarce resources, the practice of deception and manipulation etc...
THE FOUR DIFFERENT VIEWS OF POLITICS
*politics as an art of government
*politics as public affairs
*politics as compromise and consensus
*politics as power and the distribution of resources.
POLITICS AS AN ART OF GOVERNMENT
The exercise of control within society through the making and enforcement of collective decisions and processes. This refers to how the state manages the life of people living in a society. This view is advanced in the writings of the influential US political scientist David Easton who defined politics as the ‘authoritative allocation of values’.
POLITICS AS PUBLIC AFFAIRS
The distinction between ‘the political’ and ‘non political’ coincides with the division between an essential public sphere of life and what can be thought of as a private sphere. In Politics, Aristotle declared that ‘man is by nature a political animal’, by which he meant that it is only within a political community that human beings can live ‘the good life’.
POLITICS AS COMPROMISE AND CONSENSUS
In this view, politics is seen as a particular means of