military regimes etc.” (A. Leftwich, 1984) However, politics is probably the
only means of governing the nation reasonably and practically, though
the politics should not be considered as “purely practical and immediate
activity” (B. Crick, 1982), it is also about “planning for future” (B. Crick,
1982) as visionary art.
The first question arising form what is politics is what is power, where
does it come from and its importance. It is indisputable fact that power is
inevitable to “maintain obedience within the nation” (M. Weber, 1919).
We, human beings are born with a sort of predisposition consisting in
the innermost want or need to control others, to adjust others and it
obviously means the world around us to ourselves. Somebody, like G. B.
Shaw would say it is reasonable saying that “reasonable men persists in
trying to adopt the environment to himself”, but if every citizen of any
particular country would listen only to himself, “there would emerge
country of anarchy” (B. Crick, 1982). Everybody would want to govern
others and naturally, everybody would be governed by its basic primitive
instincts. It necessarily implies the fact that people are in a great need to
be governed by one common body, by the principles applicable to
everybody with a threat of punishment if disobedience occurs.
Now, we can understand the reason why something like “struggling for
power” exists. It may be argued that power is inevitable principle state
lies on, though there might be virtually two different, seemingly
contradictory things. Power and freedom.
If only power was to be applied, as Aristotle favours tyranny, there would
be an autocratic state without any reason to listen to the needs of others.
If freedom was to be applied solely in its idealistic way of understanding,
there would be a state of “anarchy”. Paraphrasing Thomas Hobbes in
Leviathan “state is as an institution people give up a freedom for “for a
common good”, eats their freedom. According to that, in a state cannot
exist anything like “power for power” or “freedom for freedom”, there has
to be a compromise, where people would be willing to pass on a part of
their freedom, where power would not be misused in any way, where
power would not be an aim, where power would be a way of serving the
nation. (power for freedom)
It is to be secured by tolerance, pluralism, by the possibility for everyone
to participate in a change, which would be about to take place, by
listening. B. Crick continues “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 would speak
freely… …so they can positively contribute to maintaining of order.” (B.
Crick, 1982) and this is the role of the state – to maintain an order.
Due to necessity and nature of human being, we are born to live in a
society, in a social groups, in a collective way of producing and sharing
the resources and money distribution thereafter, it means “that wherever
we live and work in groups, and whatever we do in our collective
productive and social lives, we are always engaged in activities of
cooperation and conflict over the use, production and distribution of
resources. (A. Leftwich, 1984).
Whatever we might have ever been thinking about, we all create nature of
politics, we are part of it, and the politics as a discipline has been created
to serve the nation, to serve the civilized society, to serve us. In this kind
of society, we have to think rationally. And politics has got to be rational
either. This is the point all the authors have in common. Whatever aspect
of politics we consider, there is a higher principle, which stems from us
and which is above us.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
- Weber, M. (1919) Politics as a Vocation, Munich, Duncker&Humblodt
-
Crick, B. (2nd ed.,1982) In Defence of Politics, London, Penguine, Ch1
- Leftwich, A. (1984) What is Politics: activity and its study, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, Ch4
Student No.: 040565699
