This chapter examines what we mean when referring to ‘politics’ and ‘the political’. This is an initial discussion in which terms and concepts are used that will themselves be discussed in more depth in subsequent chapters.

I will present and discuss here a number of descriptions and definitions from authors who have occupied themselves with the question of what it is that characterises politics. When comparing their work, we learn that, despite important differences, these descriptions also have a lot in common. This leads to the conclusion that what politics is can be reasonably well described by a set of...

As indicated in Chapter 1, we understand politics as an aspect of conflictual and cooperative interactions between people and groups about matters that must be settled for a society or community. In this chapter, I will elaborate this perspective by examining the concepts of conflict and cooperation, and by analysing the consequence of the existence of many conflicts.

I will start by defining conflict and cooperation in terms of interests or goals on the one hand, and behaviour on the other hand. This leads not only to a definition of these terms, but also to some non-trivial implications about the...

In Chapters 1 and 2I explained how we distinguish ‘politics’ from other human activities and interactions. As indicated in Chapter 1, the character of this concept makes it impossible to define it exhaustively and without any ambiguity. One might therefore wonder what the point is of trying to define the term if its definition cannot be expected to be entirely clear-cut or uncontested. The reason for doing so is that in order to understand political phenomena one has to address a set of ‘key’ questions. These questions are not pertinent for understanding other phenomena, such as those with a predominantly...

This chapter addresses one of the essential questions introduced in Chapter 3: who are the actors in political conflict and cooperation? This requires a focus on different kinds of actors, on the differences between the goals and interests that they pursue, and on their resources. It also requires a reflection on how the behaviour of political actors is to be interpreted: whether as choices, or as determined by the circumstances in which actors find themselves. As already discussed in Chapter 3, the question ‘who are the actors?’ does not require a list of names. Instead it requires a description of...

The variety of topics that lie at the heart of political conflicts is virtually infinite. Any analysis of real-world conflicts therefore needs to start by identifying and studying its concrete subject matter. However, a more general understanding of political conflicts requires a focus on their characteristics, which are the aspects of their identity that can be used to describe every imaginable conflict, and this may help to recognise similarities in the factors underlying their origin, evolution and dynamics.

Which characteristics are useful in this respect can only be established by empirically driven theoretical analysis. This chapter focusses on a small...

Power is one of the key concepts in the study of politics. For some authors it is even an indispensable part of their conception of politics (see Chapter 1). Yet the term is not used in the same way by different authors, which is not merely because of their different definitions, but because ‘power’ is a contested concept¹ that defies full and unambiguous definition. The problem is made worse even because of the close connection between the concept of power and other concepts – first and foremost influence – which are also understood differently across the literature.

This chapter therefore focusses first...

Politics does not exist in a vacuum. It has a context which affects and constrains it. This context, and in particular its stable aspects, determines to a large extent our experiences and our thinking, our perceptions of the world, our expectations, and our ideas about ‘normality’. It therefore also affects our norms and values – even if these are not universally shared in a society – and our perceptions of ourselves and of how we differ from others. The context, therefore, constitutes an important foundation for our goals and interests and thus also for relations of conflict and cooperation. It determines to...

Politics, as discussed in Chapters 1 and 2, is characterised by three things. First, it deals with matters that have to be settled for an entire society, community or group. Second, there is no agreement about what these matters are, or about their desired outcomes. Third, this generates conflict and cooperation, which drive politics. Throughout this book, it has been argued that political conflict and cooperation exists in all kinds of settings, including many that are not associated with the term politics in everyday parlance. Thus, politics exists in countries or states, but also in firms, schools, hospitals, churches, social...