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What is politics?
By
Nandini Patel - 10-06-2002 |
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What is politics? Great thinkers from Aristotle to Arendt, have viewed politics as an activity which is essential to safeguard human survival and well-being. Politics arises according to great Aristotle, in organised states, which recognise themselves to be an aggregate of many members, not a single tribe, religion, interest or tradition. Politics is not something that can be completely disassociated from the lives of people and left completely in the hands of a political elite, because then it would be tyranny or oligarchy and not ‘political’ order.
Let us not forget that today’s ruling elite is largely a part and parcel of the ruling (tyrannical) elite of yesterday which suppressed all intellectual inquiries into the role of the state, relation between the government and its people, and most importantly the rights of the people. One of the instruments of suppression of intellectual freedom was the infamous censorship law, which banned books on grounds, which is beyond comprehension for inquisitive minds. Therefore, I would presume that the work of Bernard Crick titled In Defence of Politics published in the early 70s would not have found its way to the shelves in libraries in Malawi those days and, therefore, would be very apt today to go through some of the sections of Crick’s work.
Taking on from Aristotle—that state is an aggregate of many members—Crick defines politics as accepting the fact of simultaneous existence of different groups, hence different interests and traditions, within a territorial unit under a common rule.
Crick rightly argues that politics may be seen to be the real force in every organised state, but in fact, politics is only one of the possible solutions of the problem of order, which is by no means the most usual. Tyranny is the most obvious alternative—the rule of one strong man in his own interest, and oligarchy is the next most obvious alternative—the rule of one group in their own interest. The method of rule of the tyrant and the oligarch is quite simply to clobber, coerce or overawe all or most of these other groups in the interest of their own. Whereas, the political method of rule is to listen to these other groups so as to conciliate them as far as possible, and to give them a legal position, a sense of security, some clear and reasonably safe means of articulation, by which these other groups can and will speak freely. Politics, therefore, is drawing all these groups into each other to make a positive contribution towards the general business of government and maintaining of order.
Though politics is often equated with the activities of the government it encompasses a lot more activities than this. It is the ceaseless struggle of individuals and groups for a larger share of the community’s scarce resources. Politics is the medium through which the conflicting interests arising out of this struggle are sought to be regulated and reconciled. Successful reconciliation leading to social stability and peace is attempted by means such as norms, laws and institutions.
It is often incorrectly assumed that politics is all pervasive and ever present. It is ineffectual in two scenarios, namely; in a situation of total unanimity and in a situation of total disagreement. In a consensual community politics will become redundant and will be replaced by administration and today there is no such society in the world. The other extreme where a society is torn by conflicts, violence rules out any scope for politics. Only limited disagreements and conflicts can be resolved by political means.
Selfishness, thirst for power, factionalism and unholy alliances or compromises are commonly found in politics. It is due to these vices that politics has earned a pejorative connotation. This often makes many jump to the conclusion that society can be cleaned by simply ridding it of politics which is naive and deceptive. The root cause of these vices is in human nature itself. Philosophers like Plato and Marx who dreamt of banishing politics by replacing it by a benevolent dictatorship or a stateless society only ended up as utopian.
Deliberately ignoring the conciliatory, deliberative aspects of politics and condemning it as an immoral and, therefore, prohibitive is only to legitimise tyranny or oligarchy. Most known governments try to repress politics as much as they dare or can. Politics is often erroneously referred to as an end in itself. It is not. It is a means towards establishing a political order or setting up a particular type of political system. The misconception also arises from substituting politics to personalisation of issues, character assassination and deliberately side-tracking issues of governance and focusing on trivial matters.
Politics is being used as a synonym for intolerance of dissenting voices, mutual suspicion leading to hatred and secrecy over issues that are to be public. In a truly political society matters of public importance should be stated in public in terms that are publicly comprehensible. Incompetent governments thrive on secrecy. Truth is hidden under the pretext of public order and discipline. Reports of public commissions of inquiry do not come before the public who have a legitimate right to know them.
Finally, there is a need for serious rethinking, leading to a willing acceptance of ‘politics’ and ‘political’ in their real sense, by both, those wielding power and the common people who are the actual custodian of power. Such an acceptance alone can help us overcome some major impediments to democratic progression like culture of secrecy, suffering in silence, mutual subtle suspicions and hatred and lay firm basis for a democratic political culture. |
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