An Introduction to Politics

Politics is basically the group of societal activities that are related to making decisions on behalf of the people in terms of sharing resources or status, or the distribution of goods and services amongst different groups. The field of political science is also known as social science, because it studies politics and the public’s view of government. Politics may be viewed from two perspectives, that being the perspective of the state and that of individual states. Politics is an ever changing field because societies are highly decentralized and tend to have a strong national identity.

In recent years the conception of the word politics has changed and now refers to the study of political systems of different states and countries. The most prominent political systems are constitutional monarchies, aristocratic political systems, constitutional monarchies, and democratic systems. The study of politics generally divides into political science and political philosophy. The former tries to understand politics as a methodical science while the latter attempts to understand politics as a value system, and as a set of beliefs concerning the society, government, and polity. There exists a diversity of definitions of politics in the field of political science, but they generally agree on some basic issues such as defining politics as a system of polity, society, government, and polity and analyzing politics as a process of collective decision-making.

Politics is often studied through the lenses of philosophy, with a focus on how politics influences the practice of ethical reasoning and public policy through the processes of deliberation and argumentation. Philosophy also typically seeks to understand politics as a theory of the state, focusing on how the state forms and shapes the societal organization. Politics and government can also be studied theoretically, with a focus on how institutions affect political processes and how they provide space for contestation and alternative perspectives. The most important preoccupation of political scientists is to understand how various institutions affect each other and how politics shapes the structure of society. They try to understand the societal relationships between political parties, between government and society, between economic classes, and between gender and politics.