What is Politics?

Essay by hellokitty_1stCollege, UndergraduateA+, June 2003

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What Is Politics?

When one hears the word ?politics? many thoughts come to mind such as government, policy, and affairs. This means that the field of Politics has more than just one, single meaning. Politics can at the basic level be defined as the process that people use to organize themselves, societies and the world and by which they seek to achieve and maintain a distinctive social order and survival. But at a greater thinking level it is hard to come up with a definition that explains all of the areas that politics may cover. Politics is not something easily defined and in fact much variation exists within this definition from one country to another. Several factors that influence these variations in the definition of politics are the political branch that is dealt with, culture, and the political system used in the society.

It is obvious that the definitions given by various dictionaries and theorists such as Plato, Aristotle or Bernard Crick show very considerable differences.

This is due to the fact that the authors have different viewpoints in the meaning of politics. One problem with finding an essential definition to politics is that it can be described in different terms depending on whether one is speaking of politics as a human activity, as an academic activity, or, in American, politics or political science. Politics as Human Activity deals with how politics in general is associated with everyday life. Academic Activity is the area that deals with the study of politics and Political Science is how various concepts and terminologies are used to analyze and explain Politics scientifically.

Some countries such as Canada and United States contain various cultures. In fact, the dissimilarities in these cultures are what cause the people?s behaviour to be different. In a multicultural society,