Session 3: How Is The Political Different From The Social?

Rather than confining politics to a particular sphere like the state, the government or the public domain, politics should be understood as an aspect of all social relations and social activities. As Leftwich says, “Politics is at the heart of all social activity.” Politics, in one way or another, takes place at every level of social interaction. So what distinguishes the social from the political? What sets apart paying taxes and voting from donating charity and volunteering? It is that the former are an obligation and the latter are not. Paying taxes isn’t a voluntary act, but a necessary one. A citizen is OBLIGED to pay taxes, whereas a member of society VOLUNTARILY contributes to charity. Hence, it could be said, well quite generally perhaps, that it is the mere existence of power that draws a fine line between ‘the political and social’. So where politics is about differences of opinion over scarce resources, power becomes the means through which this struggle is conducted. This definitely begs the question, ‘What Is Power?’ The answer to which I am incapable of giving. Firstly because I am as literate on this subject as any other layman and secondly because it is an ever changing and dynamic definition. Power, I believe has its own varying connotations, and it comes to a man as differently as it does to another. However, if we look at it in the context of today’s democracies, in most systems, the compliance of the populace with the demands of their rulers depends not merely on the threat or actuality of coercion, but also on a measure, at least, of belief in their ‘legitimacy’. Power no longer holds the same primitive definition as it once did. Power begs credibility, and performance. A man with power is accountable to the people he owes his power to. Democracies have their natural way of maintaing a check and balance on ones responsible. Therefore, the careless flaunting of power for purposes not aligned with the interests of the people may no longer be commonplace, although it may still occur in various shapes and forms which we, through the course of this subject, hope to be acquainted with. What I take away is that power has always been an integral part of communities and has been looked upon as a valuable resource which has to be distributed so that the matters of the state and those pertaining to it, may be run effectively. It creates a line of order and a hierarchy, the benefit of which is considered more important than the negative definitions related to it.