Chapter 1: Politics and Political Science

We study politics in a naturalistic mode. like a scientist studies bacterium, never getting angry at a fact but
trying to understand how and why something happens. Political Science draws from other social science as it
focuses on power.

If you do not take an interest and participate, others will, and they will influence the decisions to govern your
life. It is for you to be aware of what politics is and how it works so that you can look after yourself and prevent
others from using you. The ignorant are manipulated.

Politics may be inherently immoral or, at any rate, amoral. Misuse of power, influence peddling, and out-right
corruption are prominent features of politics.

But you need not like what you study. It is something that you are interested of. Understanding the forces of
nature and work with them to improve humankind's existence.

THE MASTER OF SCIENCE: POLITICS

Aristotle, the founder of the discipline, called politics “the master science.” He meant that almost everything
happens in a political context, that the decisions of the polis governed most other things.

Politics in the words Harold Lasswell, it is the study of who gets what.

Suppose something utterly natural strikes, like a hurricane. It is the political system that decides whether and
where to build dikes and whether and which of the victims to aid. The disaster is natural, but its impact on
society is controlled in large part by politics.

Because almost everything is political, studying politics means studying nearly everything. Some students select
“interdisciplinary majors.” Political science already is one, borrowing from and overlapping with all of the other
social sciences.

German Philosopher Hegel, who argued that things happen not by caprice or accident but for good and
sufficient reasons. "whatever is real is rational"

That means that nothing is completely accidental and that if we apply reason, we will understand and that if we
apply reason, we will understand why something happens.

We study politics in a “naturalistic” mode, not getting angry at what we see but trying to understand how it
came to be.

Chapter 2: Politics, Governance, and Government

Political science often uses the findings of other social sciences, but one feature distinguishes it from the others
—its focus on power.

Aristotle said it first and perhaps best: “Man is by nature a political animal.” (Aristotle’s words were zoon
politikon , which can be translated as either “political animal” or “social animal.” The Greeks lived in city states
in which the polis was the same as society.)

According to David Easton "Human activity concerned with the authoritative decision- making and action by
the government that results in authoritative allocation of values for society."
How do we measure good governance?

1. Government selection, monitoring and replacement.

Good Governance:

1. Political Governance
2. Economic Governance
3. Administrative Governance

Government is an institution.

Do you think Politics and Governance is influenced by the social institutions?

Chapter 3: Political Ideologies

A set of shred ideas that has a purpose and that purpose is to call mass or a government action to achieve
something economic or political gains.

Ideology is the guide to the society, or the main goal.

Liberalism

The word liberal is derived from the Latin word liber which means free men. Liberalist is also a derivative of
liber. The central idea of all these words is freedom or liberty. Liberal also denotes generosity or open-
mindedness. Central idea of liberalism is individualism.

It means the belief that it is the aim of politics to preserve individual’s rights and to maximize freedom of choice

Key Elements of Liberalism

Individualism is a completely central liberal principle. It means that liberals believe that individual welfare
should come before social welfare, or the welfare of any other collective group. They believe that people are
different individuals in the first place, and that this fact is important. First, each individual person is unique with
their own character, taste and identity. They also believe that each person is equal in moral status, as everyone,
in the first place, is an individual.

Following this, liberals want to create a society that will allow people to succeed and develop, living their lives
as they wish. This means that liberals are doubtful of any political viewpoint that attempts to control too much
of an individual’s life, without leaving them to follow their own course in life.

 Abstract individualism: This is the individualism closest to the classical stream of liberalism. The
individual is considered a completely independent creature that ‘owns’ its body and its personal abilities.
 Social individualism: Unlike the above, Modern Liberalists connect individualism with wider units,
such as family, society and even the nation.
Freedom: Liberals nevertheless see that absolute freedom for individuals is not practical. Absolute freedom
would be able to create a situation where some individuals could use their freedom to harm others. As a result,
although freedom is among the basic liberal principles, they are willing to limit that freedom for everyone to be
able to live together. They believe that everyone should have as much freedom as possible without impacting
the freedom of others.

 Negative freedom: This is the type of freedom in which Classical Liberals believe. The idea behind
negative freedom is that an individual is free if left alone to live their life without intervention, and that
they may behave as they wish. This freedom is described as negative as it believes that any obstacles
that could prevent the individual from achievement should be eliminated.
 Positive freedom: Unlike the above, Modern Liberals believe that freedom calls for much more than
merely eliminating obstacles and leaving the individual alone. They rather believe that true freedom
calls for creating conditions giving the individual a fair opportunity to develop their abilities and
understanding of the world and, therefore, they will be able to reach their potential as a person.

Rights: A right is simply a provision allowing an individual or group of people to behave or be treated in a way
and which, at the same time, places a duty upon others to keep to this regime. Early liberals from the 17th and
18th centuries, such as John Locke and Thomas Jefferson, argued that everyone has natural rights – namely
God-given rights which are common to all, whoever they are and whatever their background. Indeed, according
to Jefferson (who happened to be a friend of the Welshman Richard Price and influenced by some of his ideas)
these are inalienable rights, as people acquire them only for being human; so they must be accepted and
followed.

It was said that these natural rights are wholly necessary in order to live a meaningful life. Locke believed that
the individual had three natural rights, the right to ‘life, liberty and property’. Jefferson was of a slightly
different viewpoint, regarding whether property could be treated as a natural God-given right. As a result, he
described our natural rights as the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Liberals do not now very
often refer to natural rights. The idea of human rights has become more common.

Rationalism: Liberals want freedom for everyone partly as they believe that people are reasonable and
considerate, and that they can think for themselves, and decide which path to follow during their lives. This
does not mean that liberals believe people are incapable of making mistakes. The emphasis on rationalism
means that liberals believe in progress. They believe that the increase in knowledge over the last centuries, the
scientific revolution, means that people have a better understanding of the nature of their world. Also, as we can
reason, people can try to organise the world for the better. It is also expected that each generation, in its turn,
adds to the store of knowledge, to achieve further progress in the future.

The emphasis on reason means that liberals believe in discussion. They accept that conflict – for example about
how to share or how to use scarce resources – will happen in any society. Nevertheless, when this happens,
liberals believe that open discussion is the only way to overcome this. They believe that this will succeed, as
people are reasonable. And in discussion they will see that conflict is pointless and it could lead to violence or
unfortunately war.

Justice can generally be defined as a matter of making a moral decision on how to share opportunities or
resources among members of society, in the fairest way. Liberals have three different definitions of equality.

 Basic equality, believes in basic equality for all. This means that liberals believe that the life of
everyone is of equal value.
 Formal equality, means that everyone should get the same formal status in society, and that each
person, no matter their background, has the same rights. Liberals oppose any regime that gives
opportunity to some but not others, because of gender, skin colour, religion or social class.
  Equal opportunities, namely that everyone should get the same opportunity to succeed within society.
This does not mean that liberals believe in absolute equality – that is, they do not believe that life
outcomes should be the same for all and that there should not be any difference in standard of living or
wealth.

Tolerance ang Pluralism: Liberals strongly believe in tolerance of diversity. They believe that different
individuals can only live free lives if people are willing to accept that others will, perhaps, choose to think or
behave in a manner with which they do not agree. The emphasis on tolerance and the connection between that
and individual freedom goes back a long way in the history of liberalism. But some liberals believed that
society is more than something to be tolerated, that includes moral, cultural and political diversity. They believe
that social pluralism should be considered as positive and that it should be celebrated and promoted.

Conservatism

Conservatism is a preference for the historically inherited rather than the abstract and ideal. Conservatives thus
favour institutions and practices that have evolved gradually and are manifestations of continuity and stability.
Government’s responsibility is to be the servant, not the master, of existing ways of life, and politicians must
therefore resist the temptation to transform society and politics.

Key Elements of Conservatism

Tradition: The need to keep and maintain and avoid sudden political and social change is a very important
theme for Conservatives, particularly for those who belong to the Traditional stream. This means that many
Conservatives have tended to place an emphasis on the notion of tradition; that is, there is a need to respect and
honour different institutions or different practices that have a long history.

Pragmatism: There has been a tendency among Conservatives to question whether human beings can use their
reasoning to gain a full understanding of the world with all its complications. As a result, great doubts were
expressed about the value of promoting a body of abstract principles, such as freedom, equality or tolerance, as
guidelines to guide us in politics and in deciding how society should be organized.

This means that our political decisions and actions should be informed by consideration of what appears to be
practical and appropriate at the time, rather than by a body of general assumptions. In other words, the choice
should be whatever is likely to 'work', whatever that may be.

Indeed, the emphasis on pragmatism has encouraged a number of Conservatives to claim that they do not really
profess a political ideology. Instead, thinkers such as Oakshott prefer to describe Conservatism as a 'way of
thinking' or a 'lifestyle', where knowledge is something 'practical' that will be developed through life experience,
rather than something 'technical'. accumulated through the study of textbooks and written sources.

Human imperfection: Liberalism and Socialism are political ideologies which tend to interpret human beings
as 'good' in nature or that at least have the potential to be 'good', as long as their social circumstances permit
that. Conservatives, however, tend to reject such assumptions and think of us as imperfect, impaired beings.
This emphasis on the imperfect nature of humans manifests itself in a range of different ways.

An Organic Society: Conservatives have traditionally placed emphasis on the idea that every individual is
rooted in society. It was maintained that it does not make sense to think of the individual as a creature that can
exist apart from society. Indeed, this interpretation of the significance of the connection between the individual
and the wider society has caused many Conservatives to respond to the liberal emphasis on the freedom of the
individual by arguing that there is also a need to remember the individual's duties or commitments towards
society.
Conservatives have interpreted society as an organic entity: a living entity where different parts work together
just like the heart, lungs, liver and brain do in the human body. In the case of the body, all of these organs need
to work together in harmony or the whole body will fail.

Hierarchy: Conservatives have argued that hierarchy and inequality are inevitable features of any society. This
means that they assume that ensuring meaningful social equality, for example in terms of status, wealth or
power, is an impossible objective. In that respect, there is an element of overlap between Conservatism and
Liberalism.

Authority: The above belief in a hierarchy and the inevitable nature of inequality is reinforced by the
Conservative emphasis on authority. Conservatives tend to interpret authority as a natural thing that, just like
society itself, already exists and is imposed upon us 'from above'. Consequently, unlike Liberals, Conservatives
do not consider that professing valid authority is dependent on the explicit consent of the person who is to obey.
It is said that this would be meaningless, as the role of the authority holder is to provide guidance, support and
assistance to those who lack the ability, knowledge or experience to decide for themselves.

The idea of authority that derives 'from above' is not seen by Conservatives as a bad thing. Rather, it is believed
to contribute to the promotion of social stability, creating a sense amongst the population of what is expected of
them.

Property: Conservatives generally place great emphasis on the concept of property. They believe that our
ability to own private property or assets has several virtues. Like many Liberals, Conservatives recognize the
argument that ownership of property is an expression of merit; that is, the fact that a person succeeds in
amassing a substantial stock of property or wealth derives from his willingness to strive through his life and to
use his personal talents constructively. However, many Conservatives have argued that ownership of property
also has wider social and psychological benefits.

It was insisted that the individual's right to manage his assets and wealth was a matter that should be balanced
against that person's duties to society more generally. However, as the Right New ideas gained ground over the
last few decades (and particularly as the neo-liberal arm of that movement gained increasing influence), an
increasing number of contemporary conservatives were seen to be developing an increasingly uncompromising
attitude towards the issue of private property.

Guide Questions

1. Can you define Politics in your own idea?