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    The Purpose of Politics
    The Purpose of Politics
    The Purpose of Politics
    Ebook97 pages2 hours

    The Purpose of Politics

    By Philip Tether

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    About this ebook

    THE PURPOSE OF POLITICS. This is the first in a series of books on government and politics designed for students and the general reader (see 'other publications' for a full list of titles). All the books interlink and cross-reference but are designed to stand alone. This introductory text starts the series with a detailed examination of politics. It asks a number of important key questions such as what is politics and how can we define it? Who does politics and why and how? What are its uses and abuses? Throughout, emphasis is placed on politics as an attempt to influence authoritative decision-making in many settings employing a wide range of resources. The text opens with a clear statement of Aims and Learning Outcomes to give clarity and direction to your reading. The subsequent text is then divided into easy-to-read sections on:
    Governments and states
    Nation states and their citizens
    Welfare capitalism
    Political legitimacy and obligation
    Doing politics
    The status of politics
    The book concludes with:
    Politics: a summary
    Review questions
    References
    Throughout, the material is carefully designed to equip the reader with a basic political vocabulary and an appreciation of the significance of politics as an important, pervasive and irreplaceable activity involving us all.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPhilip Tether
    Release dateNov 23, 2015
    ISBN9781311689863
    The Purpose of Politics
    Author

    Philip Tether

    Philip Tether has taught government and politics for over thirty years at a number of higher education institutions in the UK. During this time he has taught a wide variety of students and supervised many Masters dissertations and PhD theses. He has set and marked government and politics papers for a variety of examination boards. He has published extensively on a variety of political topics with particular emphasis on the politics of health including alcohol and HIV-AIDS and his current research interest is the business – government relationship. Philip Tether enjoys the theatre, cinema and walking the dogs. You will sometimes find him in the garden.

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      Book preview

      The Purpose of Politics - Philip Tether

      AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS

      IDEAS, STRUCTURES, PEOPLE AND PLACES

      No. 1: THE PURPOSE OF POLITICS

      Copyright 2015 Dr. Philip Tether

      Published by Dr. Philip Tether at Smashwords

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy.

      Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Cover design © Bob Croft

      Technical advice, layout and formatting by Bob Croft

      For further information or help designing and creating e-books contact:

      [email protected]

      The Purpose of Politics

      Dr. Philip Tether

      This is No 1 in a series of introductory texts each addressing an aspect of politics. The current and forthcoming title list is shown below. They are free-standing but link together to present a multi-layered analysis of the ideas, structures, people and processes which go to shape the world of politics. The author has taught government and politics in various higher education institutions for over thirty years. The focus is largely but not exclusively on the United Kingdom (UK). Where appropriate, examples and illustrations are drawn from around the world. The material is designed to be accessible to students at all levels from beginners to university students. ‘Aims,’ ‘Contents’ and ‘Learning Outcomes’ are specified at the start of every text and each concludes with an overview summary and a set of review questions for independent learning.

      The current title list includes:

      No 1: The Purpose of Politics

      No 2: Political Systems

      No 3: Popular Democracy

      No 4: Liberal Democracy

      No 5: Political Ideology and the Liberal Centre

      No 6: Political Ideology: Politics on the Right

      Forthcoming titles are planned:

      No 7: Political Ideology: Politics on the Left

      No 8: The Politics of the European Union (EU)

      No 9: The politics of Global Governance

      No. 1: THE PURPOSE OF POLITICS

      Aims of this text

      The aim of this text No. 1 is to provide a comprehensive introduction to the notion of politics; what it is, who does it, why and how. For illustrative purposes, the discussion is closely linked to British politics and the British political system though the analysis is wide-ranging and draws on examples from around the world. The material is designed to equip the reader with a basic political vocabulary and an appreciation of the significance of politics as an important, pervasive and irreplaceable activity involving us all.

      Learning outcomes

      After reading this text you should be able to understand and discuss:

      * Governments and states.

      * The components of political obligation.

      * The nature and function of politics.

      * Politics defined as an attempt to influence authoritative decision-making in a wide variety of settings.

      * The range of resources both coercive and persuasive which political actors can mobilise and deploy in order to influence authoritative decision-making.

      Review Questions

      At the end of this text you will find a selection of review questions to test your understanding of these learning outcomes

      Table of Contents

      The Purpose of Politics - this book series

      Aims and Learning Outcomes

      Governments and states

      Nation states and their citizens

      Welfare capitalism

      Political legitimacy and obligation

      Doing politics

      The status of politics

      Politics: a summary

      Review questions

      References

      About Dr. Philip Tether

      Other books by Dr. Philip Tether

      Connect with Dr. Philip Tether

      Governments and states

      Picture this. You are in an aircraft coming in to land. As you descend through the clouds, suddenly, spread out below you are roads, houses, streets, factories as far as the eye can see – a sprawling metropolis. How, one might reasonably ask, does all this work? How does it ‘hang together’ in such a way as to enable untold numbers of people to live and work together? Isn’t it a miracle that a million lavatories flush in unison every morning and a million people set out to work? The reason that all this is possible is that the people below you are subject to common rule. Common rule is maintained through and by political institutions in general and government in particular. Governments enforce order, make all-embracing policies affecting all and organise daily life in a thousand ways. Government makes a common life possible.

      This positive view is not shared by anarchists (‘an-archy’ – no government) who believe states, authority and leadership are all expressions of domination and that spontaneous human co-operation without authority structures is possible. Examples of truly leaderless societies are difficult to find. Hunter gather groups without ‘chiefs’ sometimes qualify as leaderless societies living as they do in small egalitarian tribes or kin groups where decisions are taken apparently on the basis of consensus.

      The best contemporary example a society based on anti-authoritarian anarchist ideals in the developed world is Freetown Christiana in Denmark which is a commune set up by squatters in 1971 in an abandoned military base. It has just short of a thousand members and all decisions are reached by consensus through a network of committees. The objection of course is obvious. Freetown Christiana could not exist were it not for the fact it was embedded in and sustained by the Danish state.

      If we reject anarchism on the grounds that it is utopian and impractical then it appears that some sort of common rule is necessary. We can regard this common rule as a necessary evil - any government is better than none. Alternatively, this common rule or government can be seen not just as a necessary evil but a precondition of civilised existence. The nineteenth century French critic and historian Hippolyte Taine (1828 - 1893) wrote that " History proves to us that the state, government, religion, church, all public institutions, are the only means by which wild and animal man obtains his

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