What Is Politics? :: Essays on Politics

What Is PoliticsOn hearing the contrive politics, what usually springs to mind are images of government, politicians and their policies or more negatively the musical theme of corruption and dirty tricks. The actual explanation seems to have been obscured and almost befuddled by such representations and clichs that tend not to pinpoint the veritable essence, which defines this thing, called politics. In order to make an attempt at a definition of politics a systematic approach is required. To begin with, a truncated historical overview will be considered, to understand the origins of politics. Following this, different incumbrance concepts, which are imperative to a definition of politics, will be discussed, in the hope to discover a true and fair interpretation of the newsworthiness politics.The word politics comes from the Greek word polis, meaning the state or community as a whole. The concept of the polis was an ideal state and came from the writings of great political t hinkers such as Plato and Aristotle. In his novel The nation, Plato describes the ideal state and the means to achieve it. Hence, the word politics originally has connotations in the ways in which to create the ideal conjunction. An ideal society is in practice a rather difficult aim and point an impossible aim to achieve. Politics implies measures which could and should, in the views of their devisor, be implemented in the hope to create a better society, than that which is already present. The very incident that Plato and Aristotle saw imperfections in the societies in which they lived, prompted them to write their political philosophies. These philosophies provided the first indite recognition of politics. In his writings his The Politics, Aristotle states that Man is by temper a political animal(The Politics, 1) in another words, it lies deep at bottom the instinct of man. It is almost primal. Due to his nature man should consider and pick out his role within the polis. So according to Aristotle Politics is not a dreamt up concept, but rather an inherent feature of mankind. To begin with, the basest presumptuousness that underpins the notion of politics should be considered in order to arrive at a fair definition. Man is self-preserving by nature. He thinks and acts, whether that is as an unmarried or as a group who share interests, with foremost attachment to his own interests. Self-perpetuation is the number one rule. He therefore possesses his own interests, ideas and preferences, which may