What is Politics?

Politics. It is possibly the most hated word in the English language. Most people hate politics and government without really knowing what they are. Many different definitions of politics exist. One definition defines politics as the conflict between groups over something they both want. Another similar definition calls politics the "who gets what, when, and how." Government is defined as the institution that has the enforceable right to control people’s behavior. But why do people hate politics and politicians? Is it because politicians cannot be trusted, or maybe because they spend too much money? Whatever the reasons are for hating politics and government, both are needed as a mechanism for people to protect themselves. Possibly, if people developed a better understanding of politics and government, they would change their views about the subject. This could come about by looking at the various types of government and how they evolved.

Two types of governments exist. A government can either be classified as a monarchy or a republic. To be classified as a monarchy, a government must have some kind of royal family that inherits their position of power. Different types of monarchs exist. A monarchy may be a limited monarchy, a constitutional monarchy, or an absolute monarchy.

A limited monarchy is one in which the royalty have only ceremonial powers. An example of this is in the United Kingdom. While Queen Elizabeth is considered the queen, she has no authority in lawmaking and does not deal with the parliament. A limited monarchy merely has a royal family for ceremonies and in keeping with tradition.

The second type of monarchy is a constitutional monarchy. In this form of monarchy, the monarch has powers granted to h...

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...evolt against the government, it never happened as he expected. The great poor and middle class uprisings that Marx predicted would result from the Industrial Revolution did not occur. Instead, more jobs gave people less reason to revolt.

The types of governments and the theories on the origin of government described in this paper have hopefully given a basic understanding of what government is. People often feel that they need to hate government without even knowing what it is or the theories of its origin. Hopefully, people will begin to understand more about politics and government and realize that it is not something to hate. The more someone learns about government and political processes, the more likely someone is to take action and become involved. That is why even a basic understanding of politics and government is so important for people of this country.