Whoever participates in politics must act with transparency.
Politics is an activity oriented ideologically to the decision-making of a group to achieve certain objectives. It can also be defined as a way of exercising power with the intention of resolving or minimizing the clash between conflicting interests that occur within a society.
The use of the term gained popularity in the 5th century BC. C. At that time, Aristotle developed his work precisely titled "Politics" .
Origin of the word politics
The origin of the word politics comes from the Greek word polis , whose meaning refers to the Greek cities that formed the States where the government was partially democratic. It should be noted that it is in this culture where the human need to organize social life and governments attempts to be formalized.
If we look for the definition of the term in the Dictionary of Social Sciences we will see that this is the name given to political action itself, while political can be used to describe an element related to it: political power , political action , etc. For its part, the DRAE mentions it as the art of governing people and the aforementioned adjectival, as something related to politics.
Your story
The beginnings of politics are considered to date back to the Neolithic , when society began to organize itself into a hierarchical system and certain individuals acquired power over the rest. Before, power simply resided in the one with the greatest physical strength or the most intelligent in a group. Some theorists claim that this type of organization could also be considered a form of politics, so we would fall into the definition that politics is as old as humanity itself.
The political systems of antiquity were generally absolutist, since all power was in the hands of a single subject. In Greece , there were also some polis where partial democracy was practiced and assemblies were held. Starting with the French Revolution, the political scheme underwent an important change, where a fundamental element was the Constitution of the United States . From that moment on, regimes with democratic characteristics were established, where decision-making responds to the general will.
Democracy is the form of political organization that has become most popular in recent decades. It is based on a State administration elected by majority based on the provisions of a Constitution also approved by the people, which exercises partial and organizational power and whose objective is to represent the ideas of the citizens . This is true in theory, but in practice it is rarely carried out in the desired way, because it is difficult for politicians to put aside their particular interests to look after those of all the people.
Through social movements and activism, politics can be done outside of party structures and without the intention of reaching the government.
Policy exercise
The exercise of politics is usually carried out in groups known as political parties . When there are elections in a democratic regime, these parties propose candidates who aspire to win the vote and thus assume the representation of the people in the Executive Branch (headed by the president or prime minister ) or the Legislative Branch (Congress, Parliament, Senate , etc. .).
The public administration contemplates a separation of powers that also includes the Judicial Branch . However, in this case the officials are not usually elected by the population.
Electoral campaigns allow parties to disseminate their proposals through propaganda and political advertising. Many times debates are organized between the different candidates so that citizens can analyze their projects. Before the elections themselves, it is common for surveys to be carried out to anticipate the voting intention of voters.
The inside and the outside
What is known as internal policy covers all measures that affect the inhabitants of the State: the definition of fiscal policy, the management of the economy, decision-making linked to education and public health and other issues depends on the rulers. Broadly speaking, it can be said that the task of the person who assumes the management of the government is to seek agreements to promote the well-being of the community as a whole .
Foreign policy , on the other hand, is that oriented toward international relations. Diplomacy is the basis of this field, which usually includes negotiations and alliances to address global problems such as climate change, immigration policy and terrorism.
Gender policy is essential to fight discrimination, combat machismo and guarantee LGBTQ+ rights.
Left and right in politics
There are multiple aspects of political theories and ideologies, which can be summarized in two large groups. On the one hand, we find left-wing policies (such as socialism and communism ), mainly related to social equality.
On the other hand, there are right-wing policies (such as liberalism and conservatism ), which defend the right to private property and the free market.
The influence of Plato and Aristotle
For centuries, attempts have been made to explain the concept of politics and the ways in which it should be carried out. Among the most important documents are those of Plato and Aristotle . The first, in his work "The Republic" , states that the way in which a people should be governed was through the observation of reality and the testing of idealistic changes and improvements, and that said work should be in charge of the wisest beings of that society.
For his part, Aristotle proposed a scientific approach to politics, where social analysis was carried out taking into account psychological, cultural and social elements and establishing cause and effect relationships. Furthermore, he expressed the need to create a middle class that would reduce the gap between the richest and the poorest. It should be noted that he also published a work called " The Republic" .
Other intellectuals and politics
In 1970 it was Antonio Gramsci who, based on ancient definitions, tried to provide an answer to the true reason for politics. He explained that the State must be conceived as if it were an organism belonging to the group that it must represent in order to expand it as much as possible, but that its development must be considered within the expansions of the rest of the nations.
He also said that it is reasonable that there is a group that exercises hegemony, but that this should not "get out of hand" , to the point of achieving a society governed by a system whose only interest is the economic-corporate one . In this treaty, we can understand that war and violence as means to achieve objectives should not be considered viable.
Edgar Morin and Anne Brigitte Kern have also tried to understand it, offering precious treatises on the art and science of politics . They present it with a multidimensional character that arises from the awareness of citizens and contemplates issues such as the meaning of life of our species, the development of societies, the economic systems we use and even the life and death of humanity and the extinction of the planet we inhabit. Both tried to address a policy more committed to the environment, a policy of responsibility with our environment: a multidimensional but not totalitarian policy.
Among his proposals to carry out this enterprise are working towards the associative and combating what is dissociative, maintaining that emancipation cannot have as its goal the isolation or rupture of pre-existing relationships, but rather the implementation of a common objective that requires associative work. The second thing they propose is to look for a particular universality, taking special care to opt for an interest that at first glance seems universal but that encompasses an individual need. Universality can be achieved through a series of actions that are aimed at protecting our specific universe.
It is important to clarify that all theories agree on one thing: that political activity can only become a reality through the establishment of legal norms that establish what should or can be done and what cannot be done in a certain territory.
The discipline in charge of the study of political activities is called political science , professionals in this science are called political scientists and people who hold professional positions in charge of the State or aspire to them are defined as politicians .
More meanings of the term
To finish we will share some other ways that the meaning of this word receives.
Politics can be understood as a set of ideas , convictions or social actions that are related to public issues or related to power. Politics is also discussed when referring to a group of rulers and their relationship with the group they govern.
In legal terms, it is called in three possible ways: as a set of activities carried out by a group and that allow the creation, planning and exercise of power over another; as the struggle and opposition that must be carried out by a small group to dominate a larger one; and finally, as an activity whose reason for being is to achieve a precise goal: the common good (everything must be carried out with the objective of achieving peace through methods that do not include violence).
Some theories about politics affirm that it should not be important to resolve how the power-dominance relationship is established, but rather in what ways the integration of the parts of the group can be understood, contemplating even those minorities that in most cases do not are taken into account. This means analyzing and understanding each of the relationships that exist between individual and collective members. In this way, we can fall into a new definition of the word, coming to understand it as the art of integration and not domination , as the vast majority maintains.