Dummipedia, the simplified free online encyclopedia
| "To succeed in politics, it is often necessary to rise above your principles." [1] — Anonymous
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| "Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them." [1] — Paul Valery
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Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions so that they can live or work together. It consists of "social relations involving authority or power",[1] and refers to the regulation of a political unit,[1] and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy.[1] Although in everyday life, the term "politics" refers to the way countries are governed, and to the ways governments make rules and laws, politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. The study of both political behavior, and the acquisition and application of power, is called political science or political studies. Politics between nations where attempts to solve problems through negotiations are called diplomacy.
2. Most political analysts and politicians divide politics into left-wing and right-wing politics, often using the idea of center politics as a middle path of policy between the right and left. This classification is comparatively recent and dates from the French Revolution era, when those members of the National Assembly who opposed the monarchy sat on the left, while those who supported it sat on the right.[1] However, the original meaning disappeared quickly, with the current meaning of left-wing and right-wing varying considerably between different countries and at different times. Broadly speaking, however, it can be said that the right wing is often linked with limited government and free market, while the left wing is often linked with various forms socialism and communism.[1] Put in another way, the right wing is more often linked to the idea of equal opportunity which does not necessarily lead to equal outcome, while the left wing is linked to the idea of equal outcome.
3. The Chinese philosopher, Confucius (551-471 BC), was one of the first thinkers to adopt a distinct approach to political philosophy. His philosophy was "rooted in his belief that a ruler should learn self-discipline, should govern his subjects by his own example, and should treat them with love and concern".[1] Confucius political beliefs were strongly linked to personal ethics and morality, believing that only a morally upright ruler who possessed "de", or virtue, is able to exercise power.[1] Similarly, the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 BC) wrote that ethics and politics are closely linked.
4. The Greek philosopher, Plato (428-348 BC), in his book The Republic, argued that all conventional political systems — democracy, monarchy, oligarchy and timarchy — were inherently corrupt, and that the state ought to be governed by an elite class of educated philosopher-rulers who would be trained from birth and selected on the basis of aptitude.[1] Niccolo Machiavelli, however, wrote that politics was firstly about having and keeping power. He said that without power, a leader could do nothing. In the 1800s, John Stuart Mill developed the "liberal" idea of politics in which he stated that democracy is the most important political development of the 1800s. Utopia for Karl Marx (1818–1883), however, was the classless society in which the state would be very weak or nonexistent. more... at Wikipedia
