Politics and Democracy: An introduction

PGCM 2012 (7th September to 5th December 2012)

Sonam Chuki and Jit Tshering

This Module• An Introduction to politics and democracy• Basic ideas and concepts for politics and democracy

– What defines politics as an activity?– What defines democracy?

• Different traditions, schools of thought and the models of democracy that have arisen

• The technical ways of organising democracy• The different ’actors’ in a democratic political system

and their roles• What democracy means for Bhutan

Some questions

• Why can politics have a negative image?• Is politics the same as party politics?• Why do some people say that everything is

political? What do you think they might mean?• Who would you think of if asked to name a

’political thinker’?• Is it possible to study politics objectively and

without bias?

Some issues • Are you apolitical?• Should the members of the political parties be

given a chance to join civil service?• Can you vote without being aligned to a

political party? Is local government political?• Is National Council political?• First constitutional case…. What does it depict

of our democracy?• Is our democracy good?

Issues contd.

• Constitutional Development Fund: is it constitutional ?

• Should parties be funded by the state?• Our parties need more maturity??• Our country was/is not ready for democracy!• Our democracy is with strong check and balance.

‘Politics’ ………

Competing perspectives …

Politics: Contested Concepts

• Power, freedom, democracy…these are all ‘contested concepts’

• Our challenge:– Determining the usefulness of competing

understandings

• Don’t expect ‘clear answers’… – strive to understand and appreciate competing

perspectives

So…

What is politics?

Politics is .....• Making, amending, preserving the general social rules

by which we live

• Inevitably linked to conflict and cooperation

• Organising our public lives

• Yet tends to be seen as a ’dirty word’

• Tends to be a general agreement to disagree as to what the

subject is about

• Similarly what spheres should politics be permitted into

(government, public life, private life, etc)

So ...

• Politics as the art of government

• Politics as public affairs

• Politics as compromise and consensus

• Politics as power and the distribution of

resources

Politics as the Art of Government (narrow)

• Politics takes place within a polity; a system of social organization centred upon the machinery of government–Cabinet rooms, legislative chambers and

parliaments, government ministries and departments

–Practiced by politicians, civil servants, lobbyists• Businesses, schools, community groups, families,

etc. are outside of politics, are non-political as they are not engaged in running the country

contd

• Even narrower definition could be politics is about political parties – rest is just implementation

• However – this is generally seen as too narrow now E.g. Note difference between government and governance–Government: a collection of organisations and

institutions–Governance: broader, embracing the ways that

social life is coordinated

Narrow Definitions

• Politics pertains to the ‘public sphere’ and state authority…–Politics is the settling of conflict via the

state–Only the state has the authority to make

decisions that are binding on the whole community

–The boundaries of politics are defined by state authority

Politics as Public Affairs

• Beyond the machinery of government into the realm of public affairs or public life– Division between public life and private life (note civil society enters)

Public Private

The state: Apparatus of government

Civil society: Autonomous bodies: businesses; trade unions, families, and so on

Public Private

Public realm: Politics, commerce, work, art, culture, and so on

Personal realm: family and domestic life

Narrow Definition

• Politics is about government…–Activity, whose purpose is to

reshape, influence or change the structures, processes, policies or personnel of government

Politics as compromise and consensus

• Here the focus is more on the way that decisions are made rather than where they are made

• Politics as conflict resolution, whether by –Compromise, conciliation or negotiation,

rather than by force and naked power–Politics as ’the art of the possible’

Classic view of politics as the polity:

• ”Politics (is) the activity by which differing interests within a given unit of rule are conciliated by giving them a share in power in proportion to their importance to the welfare and survival of the whole community” (Bernard Crick)

• Politics as the solution to the problem that avoids violence and coercion

Politics as power• Broadest and most radical definition

–Not limited to a specific sphere (the government, the state, the public realm, etc)

–At the heart of all collective social activity, formal and informal, public and private, in all human groups, institutions and societies

Politics as power (contd)

• Three faces of power:–Power as decision-making–Power as agenda setting–Power as thought control (influence by

shaping thought, desires and needs)• Politics as the power to achieve an

outcome through whatever means

Open Definitions

• Politics is power…–The exercise of power–Power structured social relationships

• Politics is conflict…–The resolution of social conflict

• “Who gets what, when and how”–Competition and cooperation among

individuals and groups

Open Definitions

• Politics is the structuring of social relationships…–When people come together there is

politics, it flows through and structures our social relationships

Definition• Politics is…

–The struggles and other social processes which structure differential access to the material and symbolic resources that determine the conditions of our existence.

Definition

• Politics is about power, conflict and social relations… it exists beyond public realm and the state… it is everywhere–BUT, not every dimension of our

lives is political

Politics and the State

• States are central to politics–Authority to make binding decisions–Sovereignty: supreme and final governing

authority• Theoretical perspectives on politics are…

–Theories of the state–Theories of state/society relations–Theories of power

Competing approaches…• Liberal Pluralism• Structural Institutionalism • Elite Theory • Class Analysis

Liberal Pluralism

• Level of analysis / Notion of key political actors

• View of state and society• Understanding of power• Conception of the ‘stuff’ of politics

Prisoners’ Dilemma (or approaches to politics!

Prisoner B – Confesses B – Does not confess

A - Confesses A: 6B: 6

A: 0 B: 10

A – Does not confess

A: 10B: 0

A: 1B: 1

The Political System

People (Demos)

Gate Keepers Government

inputs inputs

outputs

So to conclude

• Politics has several definitions, can mean different things

• Ways of approaching politics, of doing politics vary also

• Not necessarily a ’right’ and a ’wrong’ way of approaching politics, but most agree violence and force should be avoided within a political system

So to conclude• The way of doing politics reflects

different traditions of political thought (idealism, realism, structuralism/ marxism)

• Each has a different view as to the nature and role of the state, similarly of the individual within the state and the type of government he/she is subjected to