1. Sonam Chuki and Jit Tshering
Politics and Democracy: An introduction PGCM (7th September to 5th December 2012)
Sonam Chuki and Jit Tshering

2. This Module An Introduction to politics and democracy
Basic ideas and concepts for politics and democracy
What defines politics as an activity?
What defines democracy?
Different traditions, schools of thought and the models of democracy that have arisen
The technical ways of organising democracy
The different ’actors’ in a democratic political system and their roles
What democracy means for Bhutan

3. Some questions Why can politics have a negative image?
Is politics the same as party politics?
Why do some people say that everything is political? What do you think they might mean?
Who would you think of if asked to name a ’political thinker’?
Is it possible to study politics objectively and without bias?

4. Some issues Are you apolitical?
Should the members of the political parties be given a chance to join civil service?
Can you vote without being aligned to a political party? Is local government political?
Is National Council political?
First constitutional case…. What does it depict of our democracy?
Is our democracy good?

5. Issues contd. Constitutional Development Fund: is it constitutional ?
Should parties be funded by the state?
Our parties need more maturity??
Our country was/is not ready for democracy!
Our democracy is with strong check and balance.

6. Competing perspectives …
‘Politics’ ………
Competing perspectives …

7. Politics: Contested Concepts
Power, freedom, democracy…these are all ‘contested concepts’
Our challenge:
Determining the usefulness of competing understandings
Don’t expect ‘clear answers’…
strive to understand and appreciate competing perspectives

8. So… What is politics?

9. Politics is .....
Making, amending, preserving the general social rules
by which we live
Inevitably linked to conflict and cooperation
Organising our public lives
Yet tends to be seen as a ’dirty word’
Tends to be a general agreement to disagree as to what the subject is about
Similarly what spheres should politics be permitted into
(government, public life, private life, etc)

10. So ... Politics as the art of government Politics as public affairs
Politics as compromise and consensus
Politics as power and the distribution of resources

11. Politics as the Art of Government (narrow)
Politics takes place within a polity; a system of social organization centred upon the machinery of government
Cabinet rooms, legislative chambers and parliaments, government ministries and departments
Practiced by politicians, civil servants, lobbyists
Businesses, schools, community groups, families, etc. are outside of politics, are non-political as they are not engaged in running the country

12. contd
Even narrower definition could be politics is about political parties – rest is just implementation
However – this is generally seen as too narrow now E.g. Note difference between government and governance
Government: a collection of organisations and institutions
Governance: broader, embracing the ways that social life is coordinated

13. Narrow Definitions
Politics pertains to the ‘public sphere’ and state authority…
Politics is the settling of conflict via the state
Only the state has the authority to make decisions that are binding on the whole community
The boundaries of politics are defined by state authority

14. Politics as Public Affairs
Beyond the machinery of government into the realm of public affairs or public life
Division between public life and private life (note civil society enters)
Public
Private
The state: Apparatus of government
Civil society: Autonomous bodies: businesses; trade unions, families, and so on
Public
Private
Public realm: Politics, commerce, work, art, culture, and so on
Personal realm: family and domestic life

15. Politics is about government…
Narrow Definition
Politics is about government…
Activity, whose purpose is to reshape, influence or change the structures, processes, policies or personnel of government

16. Politics as compromise and consensus
Here the focus is more on the way that decisions are made rather than where they are made
Politics as conflict resolution, whether by
Compromise, conciliation or negotiation, rather than by force and naked power
Politics as ’the art of the possible’

17. Classic view of politics as the polity:
”Politics (is) the activity by which differing interests within a given unit of rule are conciliated by giving them a share in power in proportion to their importance to the welfare and survival of the whole community” (Bernard Crick)
Politics as the solution to the problem that avoids violence and coercion

18. Politics as power Broadest and most radical definition
Not limited to a specific sphere (the government, the state, the public realm, etc)
At the heart of all collective social activity, formal and informal, public and private, in all human groups, institutions and societies

19. Politics as power (contd)
Three faces of power:
Power as decision-making
Power as agenda setting
Power as thought control (influence by shaping thought, desires and needs)
Politics as the power to achieve an outcome through whatever means

20. Open Definitions Politics is power… Politics is conflict…
The exercise of power
Power structured social relationships
Politics is conflict…
The resolution of social conflict
“Who gets what, when and how”
Competition and cooperation among individuals and groups

21. Open Definitions Politics is the structuring of social relationships…
When people come together there is politics, it flows through and structures our social relationships

22. Definition Politics is…
The struggles and other social processes which structure differential access to the material and symbolic resources that determine the conditions of our existence.

23. Definition
Politics is about power, conflict and social relations… it exists beyond public realm and the state… it is everywhere
BUT, not every dimension of our lives is political

24. Politics and the State States are central to politics
Authority to make binding decisions
Sovereignty: supreme and final governing authority
Theoretical perspectives on politics are…
Theories of the state
Theories of state/society relations
Theories of power

25. Competing approaches…
Liberal Pluralism
Structural Institutionalism
Elite Theory
Class Analysis

26. Liberal Pluralism Level of analysis / Notion of key political actors
View of state and society
Understanding of power
Conception of the ‘stuff’ of politics

31. Prisoners’ Dilemma (or approaches to politics!
B – Confesses
B – Does not confess
A - Confesses
A: 6
B: 6
A: 0
B: 10
A – Does not confess
A: 10
B: 0
A: 1
B: 1

32. The Political System Government People (Demos) inputs Gate Keepers
outputs
Government
People (Demos)
inputs
Gate Keepers
inputs

33. So to conclude
Politics has several definitions, can mean different things
Ways of approaching politics, of doing politics vary also
Not necessarily a ’right’ and a ’wrong’ way of approaching politics, but most agree violence and force should be avoided within a political system

34. So to conclude
The way of doing politics reflects different traditions of political thought (idealism, realism, structuralism/ marxism)
Each has a different view as to the nature and role of the state, similarly of the individual within the state and the type of government he/she is subjected to