Defining Politics

WHAT IS POLITICS

Introduction

This paper is aimed at discussing the definition of politics which seem to be a huge confusion as to what really it is worldwide. It begins with the definition of Politics and continue with political as science, its establishment and its introduction as an academic learning discipline in institutions. What follows are the key manifestations from the state to the citizens leading to the end product being politics. Politics is a very disturbing word from a distance as people think of it as involving conflicts, corruption or all sorts of social ills. Therefore this essay will define politics by looking at it as science, as an art of Government, as public affairs, as compromise and consensus and finally as power.

It comes from the Greek word ‘Polis’ meaning the state or the whole community (Heywood, 2013:03). Politics was introduced by the Greek Philosopher, Aristotle who defined it as a civilized form of community that serves the common good. According to Heywood (2013:2), politics is practiced in cabinet rooms, legislative chambers, and government departments by a limited and specific group of people notably politicians, civil servants and lobbyists. Political research reveal that there are many categories to define politics. Nikolic et al. (2013:04) defined science as a form of social consciousness, a clear set of objects to be studied, research goals, scientific principles and a categorical system while public is defined as the state, nation or whole body of people of the entire

This means that politics encompasses the various processes through which government responds to pressures from the larger society. According to Heywood (2014: 3), politics is derived from polis, literally meaning city-state. The Ancient Greek society was divided into a collection of independent city-states, each of which possessed its own system of government (Hix and Whitting, 2012:11). Athens is said to be the first, largest and most influential state to practice politics, it was often portrayed as the cradle of democratic government. The states consists of politicians who sits on legislatures to develop and passes the states policies and the officials who are often portrayed as non-politicians to implement states policies and laws. It is expected of officials to be non-politicians to ensure smooth implementation of policies without favour. This view of politics is clearly evident in the everyday use of the term. Therefore citizens are of the view that people are politicians when they work for the state. Politics is in simple terms defined as the art of Government because it is the state that have the authority to make and enforce laws and the citizens must comply with those