Politics Abbreviations

Science is the set of techniques and models that make it possible to organize knowledge around a structure of objective facts. Politics, as far as it is concerned, is an ideological activity aimed at the decision-making of a group to achieve objectives and the exercise of power for the resolution of conflicts.

On the other hand , it is possible to distinguish the formal sciences (with no concrete content, such as mathematics), the natural sciences (they study nature, such as geology) and the social sciences (they try to analyze the phenomena of culture and society, such as story).

That said, we can say that political science is a social science dedicated to the study of political activity as a universal and necessary phenomenon. Political science is also responsible for developing the theory of the state , the main form of social organization.

It should be noted that politics has always existed, so reflections on its scope date back to antiquity. However, there are those who place the birth of political science in the 16th century, with the work of Nicolás Maquiavelo.

As for the modern notion of political science, it appears from the 19th century onwards, at the time when liberal revolutions and industrial development brought about great social changes, which were analyzed by several thinkers.
Today, political science is responsible for analyzing the exercise of political power, state activities, public administration and management, political systems, the partisan regime and election processes, among many other subjects.

The whole of social connections, temporary in nature, in a group of highly evolved species with a complex social system , which are aimed at collectively achieving a goal within the social context that cannot be achieved individually. P. includes forming alliances, repeatedly submitting to the dominant leader of the group, forming bonds of friendship with certain individuals, and so on. A P. presupposes that the individuals have foresight, memory , insight, thus know a certain level of consciousness . It has been observed in several primate species.

‘Politics is the acquisition and exercise of power.’1 And law is politics crystallized in rules. (See: Compulsion) Until 1789, power almost everywhere in the world was in the hands of a small number of men who hunted wild beasts for entertainment, waged war during the campaign season, and spent the rest of their time at court, absorbed in intrigues that revolved around the central figure, the monarch. In the Netherlands, power is now in the hands of a small number of men and women who go on holiday for entertainment, make themselves known during election campaigns and for the rest of the year are completely absorbed in the intrigue that takes place around the Binnenhof.

Monarchy has always been linked to religion. The idea was that all power ultimately comes from God giving his blessing to a successful ruler but withholding from a bad ruler. In a democracy, that bond with the divine is a lot looser. Elections determine who gets the most votes and yet very few people will see the hand of God at work during formation discussions. He doesn’t care who becomes prime minister in the Netherlands, although one member of the Dutch government still claims that he holds his position ‘by the grace of God’. That is the king who repeats this proposition in every law. The following applies to his ministers: ‘They do not form a team, but an assembly of chiefs.’2 In a democracy, politics is a matter of interference and has two enemies: indifference and the hysterical activity of the busybody. There is never a lack of the latter in the Netherlands, which is one of the reasons why decent people in the Netherlands don’t get their hands dirty on politics. ‘The Dutch are little disposed to take a busy and sustained part in politics. They rather enjoy their liberties, than exercise their rights.”3 The Athenians saw it differently. They knew that indifference is a danger to the functioning of a democracy. One of Solon’s first laws was: Anyone who refuses to take sides when the community is deeply divided must be exiled after the conflict, as soon as order is restored. And ‘idiot’ was the word the ancient Greeks used for someone who did not participate in the popular assembly that decided his fortunes. Thucydides had Pericles say in his famous eulogy, among other things, that Athens differed from the other cities in that ‘We alone do not regard the citizen who withdraws from political decision-making as someone who is not a burden, but as a useless person, as someone you don’t care about.’ Paul Léautaud wrote in the same vein: ‘I think of all those people (I know them) who, although they have strong opinions about what is happening, what they see or learn, but out of convenience have begun to keep their mouths shut and have thus employed a kind of stupidity, so much so that in a spiritual sense they have become nothing less than eunuchs. They have replaced honor with the legion of honor.”4 (See: Rebellion) ‘I think of all those people (I know them) who, although they have strong opinions about what happens, what they see or find out, but out of laziness have begun to keep their mouth shut and thus have used a kind of stupidity, so much so that in a spiritual sense they have become nothing less than eunuchs. They have replaced honor with the legion of honor.”4 (See: Rebellion) ‘I think of all those people (I know them) who, although they have strong opinions about what happens, what they see or find out, but out of laziness have begun to keep their mouth shut and thus have used a kind of stupidity, so much so that in a spiritual sense they have become nothing less than eunuchs. They have replaced honor with the legion of honor.”4 (See: Rebellion)

Moreover, active political involvement does not have to be deadly serious. The historian Johan Huizinga, who thought that all human culture originates in play, believes that people naturally choose sides, just like children on a playground, simply for the pleasure of playing. We divide into parties, into cliques or anything else, not to gain some actual advantage, but simply for the drama of the battle.

List of Acronyms Related to Politics