Politics
Textbooks refer most often to Harold Lasswellís (1958) ìwho gets what, when, howî and David Eastonís (1971) ìauthoritative allocation of valuesî when defining the term politics.1 The field of politics involves decision making on political issues. This involves national and international political parties and interest groups, elites, influence, conflict and bargaining, and social will. The output of political decision making encompasses policies, treaties, conventions, laws, and implementation of programs. With this basic understanding of politics, we will review several classical theorists along with the contemporary understanding of politics in the literature. The review illuminates the phenomenon of politics as a framework within which to examine the notion of power in the next section.
In 1934, Lasswell suggested that, ìless formally expressed, politics is the study of who gets what, when, and how,î a most-often-quoted description of politics ([1934] 1950, 3). The ìwhatî of politics, in his view, deals with outcomes which he refers to as ì ëwants,í ëdrives,í ëwishes,í ëpredispositions,í or ëdemandsí of the individual concernedî (201). He asserts that the ìhowî of politics is related to the strategy of politics which he defines as: ìthe management of value assets in order to influence outcomesî (204). He suggests that ìwe think of politics in terms of participants (with identifications, demands, expectations; with control over base values) interacting in arenas (situations in which decision outcomes are expected), employing strategies to maximize value indulgences over deprivations by influencing decision outcomes and hence effectsî (208). This is the basic context of the notion of powertics as set forth in this commentary.
Professor Herman Finer describes politics as follows:
The first [politics] comprises the origin, development, and maturing of social will, so that popular loyalties to a desire are marshaled in such a way as to establish a law or convention socially accepted or simply acquiesced in. And this involves simultaneously the stimulation of social readiness to make the direct and indirect sacrifices of time, money, economic habits and to establish the rewards and self-restraints which are necessary to support and nourish the will thus engaged. The result is a reservoir of social will and power. (1949, 7)
British theorist Bernard Crick suggests that politics is related to pluralism in a democratic society. In his view, the notion of politics is a phenomenon in society that ìarises from accepting the fact of the simultaneous existence of different groups, hence different interests and different traditions within a territory ruledî (1964, 18).
Beyond the concentration on the decision process of public policy expressed above, many scholars in the discipline of political science view the decision system as a component of public policy focused on a substantive issue such as pollution. We need to understand both the substantive issues of a specific policy as well as the decision system to transform the public policy issue from a demand to an output aimed at achieving the ìpublic good.î The next section deals with political power in the decision system.
1Although this commentary focuses on the decision-making aspect of politics, Thomas Spragens reminds us that there are other dimensions to the term. He suggests that beyond the struggle for power, which he relates to "the sociology of power,"