POLITICS

Politics is a widely observed phenomenon. Every social being is a part of politics. In general parlance, politics referred to the activity of the individual and social groups, which express their wills and interests in ordering and managing public affairs. The word politics is applied to a particular social phenomenon which involves the study of political lives of the individual, society, social groups, State and Non-State Actors and over all private and public spheres of society and administration. The term politics is derived from the Greek word ‘polis’ which means the City-State. However, some scholars believe that apart from ‘polis’ two other Greek words ‘polity’ and ‘politeia’ means government and constitution respectively, also contributed to the development of the term politics. So, politics means the study of the state and its administration in practical as well as philosophical terms. It can be understand as the study of the state and government. The term “politics” was first used by Aristotle in his book ‘The politics’ where he used the term to indicate state as a distinct branch of study. It is not easy to define politics. There have been numerous definitions of politics. There are two major schools to define politics one is traditional and the other is modern or scientific school. The traditional and modern school not only debates about the definition of politics but also debates that whether it is science or art. One school believes that it is arts and the other as science. According to the traditional school, politics is the study of the state and the government whereas modern school defines politics as the study of power-relations and power-structures. To comprehend the thoughts of both of these two schools, we can go through the following definitions on politics.
According to H. J. Price “politics is the exercise of power in society.” To Bluntschlli politics “is concerned with the state which endeavours to understand and comprehend the state in its fundamental conditions, in its essential nature, in its various forms of manifestations, its development.” Catlin writes, “Politics is the study of political aspects of organized human society.” According to Dahl “politics is the process of the shaping and sharing of power in society.” According to Laski “The study of politics concerns itself with the life of man in relation to organized states.”
So, defining politics is not an easy task. But by correlating both the traditional and modern views, we can define politics as a social practice associated with power-structure, legitimacy, law, authority, government, state and other political and non-political institutions being formal and informal and non-formal kind. It is the activities of the individual in relation to political institutions and political systems. Politics can be evaluated through exploring what is political or what influence the political environment. It studies the activities of individual and social groups in public life characterized by political socialization, mobility and political articulation. It is about power and its relation with individual, groups and institutions.