What do you think?
Rate this book
What is Politics?: The Activity and its Study
What is politics? Is it a universal feature of all human societies, past and present? Is it tied to specific institutional arenas? Or is it found in all groups and organizations, large or small, formal or informal?
This new textbook seeks to provide answers to these important questions. Starting with what it means to 'think politically', the book goes on to explore a wide range of meanings attributed to the concept of politics from a variety of perspectives and theoretical traditions. It offers succinct and coherent overviews by some of the foremost scholars in the field, and each invites the reader to see the activity of politics in a distinctive way. Topics covered include politics as a form of rule, feminist approaches to politics, Marxism and politics, the politics of human behaviour, environmental politics, politics as collective choice, and Islam and politics.
Written with the new student in mind, this concise introduction to the study and activity of politics is essential reading for all those coming to the discipline for the first time.
This new textbook seeks to provide answers to these important questions. Starting with what it means to 'think politically', the book goes on to explore a wide range of meanings attributed to the concept of politics from a variety of perspectives and theoretical traditions. It offers succinct and coherent overviews by some of the foremost scholars in the field, and each invites the reader to see the activity of politics in a distinctive way. Topics covered include politics as a form of rule, feminist approaches to politics, Marxism and politics, the politics of human behaviour, environmental politics, politics as collective choice, and Islam and politics.
Written with the new student in mind, this concise introduction to the study and activity of politics is essential reading for all those coming to the discipline for the first time.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
39 people are currently reading
311 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 29, 2010
"What is Politics?" is a great introduction to the topic of politics and the study thereof.
It is split into 12 chapters, each tackling the original question from a new standpoint and thus giving the reader a comprehensive overview of the topic. But this strength of the book is also its weakness for one might say that the book lacks of coherence, being split into chapters written by different authors and therefore not building one argument but several.
But still, this minor flaw should not be taken as a reason not to read this highly interesting volume.
It is split into 12 chapters, each tackling the original question from a new standpoint and thus giving the reader a comprehensive overview of the topic. But this strength of the book is also its weakness for one might say that the book lacks of coherence, being split into chapters written by different authors and therefore not building one argument but several.
But still, this minor flaw should not be taken as a reason not to read this highly interesting volume.
October 7, 2019
2.5 stars. Includes way too much academic intro and not enough discussion. Also felt very intangible l, which I'd normally accept from this kind of book, but when the subject is politics I feel it needs to be more real world focused.
A few interesting bits:
"Marxism challenges the basic assumption behind the discipline of politics, namely that there is a permanent and autonomous feature of society called politics."
It states that politics is primarily concerned with power, not rights
Exploitation (of workers by owners) and class struggle provide the key to understanding politics
"There is, in fact, nothing more political than the constant attempts to exclude certain types of issues from politics"
On global politics, it argues that domestic and foreign policy are blurring. President Clinton said "if I could do one thing to change the speech patterns of those of us in public life, I would like almost to stop hearing people talk about foreign policy, and instead start discussing economic policy, security policy, environmental policy - you name it"
The chapter of environment and politics makes a similar argument to the above - that environment should be considered within every policy decision. Think I have more sympathy for this view than on foreign policy
A few interesting bits:
"Marxism challenges the basic assumption behind the discipline of politics, namely that there is a permanent and autonomous feature of society called politics."
It states that politics is primarily concerned with power, not rights
Exploitation (of workers by owners) and class struggle provide the key to understanding politics
"There is, in fact, nothing more political than the constant attempts to exclude certain types of issues from politics"
On global politics, it argues that domestic and foreign policy are blurring. President Clinton said "if I could do one thing to change the speech patterns of those of us in public life, I would like almost to stop hearing people talk about foreign policy, and instead start discussing economic policy, security policy, environmental policy - you name it"
The chapter of environment and politics makes a similar argument to the above - that environment should be considered within every policy decision. Think I have more sympathy for this view than on foreign policy
July 14, 2020
Bare in mind this is a collectikn of essays - some are inevitably better written than others.
May 10, 2021
A clear and succinct explanation of what politics is.
May 31, 2013
especially liked Leftwich's second piece and the one by Judith Squires.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews