What is Politics?

Ask different people what politics means and you will get very different answers. Politicians themselves, and those who contest elections or hold office, often describe what they do as a form of public service. Many other people, however, link politics with manipulation and intrigue -- scheming to pursue personal ambitions and satisfy private wants. This second, more cynical view is common enough that we use the phrase "playing politics" for almost any kind of self-interested manoeuvring, even completely outside government: a cricketer manipulating things to stay on the team, a fellow student misusing a parent's influence, or an employee mindlessly agreeing with the boss to stay in favour -- all of this gets called "politics," often "dirty politics."

A well-known cartoon captures just how far this disillusionment goes: a father is shown telling his son's political-worker neighbour to "retire from politics at once," because the neighbour's own conduct -- getting away with lying and cheating -- is a bad influence on the boy. The cartoon is really a comment on how deeply "politics" has come to stand for dishonesty in the popular imagination. People disillusioned in this way often say, "I am not interested in politics" or "I want nothing to do with politics." And it is not only ordinary citizens who say this -- businessmen who benefit from funding political parties, and film stars who go on to join politics themselves, routinely complain about politics in the very same breath.

But this negative picture cannot be the whole story, because politics has come to be blamed unfairly for the pursuit of self-interest by any means -- when in truth, politics is an essential and unavoidable part of every society. Mahatma Gandhi once remarked that politics envelops us the way the coils of a snake do, and that the only real option is to wrestle with it rather than try to escape it. No society can exist at all without some way of organising itself politically and making decisions collectively, because every society that wants to hold together has to somehow balance the many different needs and interests of its members. This is exactly why social institutions -- the family, tribes, economic institutions, and, importantly, governments -- have developed: they help people live together while honouring their obligations to one another.

Governments matter to us precisely because what they do reaches deep into our daily lives. Their economic, foreign and educational policies can improve people's lives, but an inefficient or corrupt government can equally endanger people's lives and security -- when a government allows conflict to turn violent, markets shut, schools close, the sick cannot reach hospitals, and even routine schooling gets disrupted, forcing families into extra coaching and tuition fees. On the other hand, sound policies on literacy and employment can open up good schools and decent jobs. Because government action affects us so deeply, we naturally take a lively interest in what governments do: we form associations and organise campaigns to press our demands, negotiate with others to shape government goals, protest and demonstrate when we disagree with a policy, and argue passionately about whether corruption has grown or shrunk, or whether particular reservations are fair. We try to understand why some parties and leaders win elections, looking for the underlying logic in what can often look like chaos, hoping in the process to build a better world. …