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Foundations of Politics flashcards
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1
Question
What is the core definition of politics as an activity?
Page 1
Answer
The activity through which people make, preserve, and amend the general rules under which they live.
2
Question
What two key elements characterize politics in its basic form?
Page 1
Answer
Conflict and cooperation.
3
Question
How does politics involve struggle in disagreement?
Page 1
Answer
Struggle to find agreement despite opposing needs and interests.
4
Question
What is the first approach to defining politics based on location?
Page 1
Answer
Politics associated with an arena or location where behavior becomes political.
5
Question
What does the arena approach to politics emphasize?
Page 1
Answer
The art of government and public affairs.
6
Question
What is the second approach to defining politics as a process?
Page 1
Answer
Politics viewed as a mechanism with distinctive characteristics like compromise, consensus, power, and resource distribution.
7
Question
How is politics described as the art of government?
Page 1
Answer
Exercise of control within society through making and enforcement of collective decisions.
8
Question
What does the ancient term 'polis' refer to in politics?
Page 1
Answer
City-state; politics as affairs of the polis.
9
Question
What is a 'polity' in political terms?
Page 1
Answer
Group of people working together as an organized political entity.
10
Question
How does the modern definition of politics relate to the state?
Page 1
Answer
What concerns the polity or state, narrowing politics to state-related activities.
11
Question
What is a narrowed view of political actors?
Page 1
Answer
Only individuals motivated by ideology advancing it through formal organizations like parties.
12
Question
What distinction is key in the public affairs approach to politics?
Page 1
Answer
Between public and private life or spheres.
13
Question
How does the public affairs view separate state and civil society?
Page 1
Answer
State satisfies broader society interests; civil society private institutions satisfy own interests.
14
Question
What is 'the political' contrasted with in public affairs?
Page 1
Answer
'The personal'; blurring lines between them.
15
Question
What is the feminist critique of the public-private distinction?
Page 1
Answer
Excludes core processes of male domination and female subordination in private spheres.
16
Question
Why do thinkers like Arendt, Rousseau, and Mill value political participation?
Page 1
Answer
It is good in itself, promoting interaction among free and equal citizens, binding state to general will, and fostering personal development.
17
Question
What is the liberal preference regarding politics?
Page 1
Answer
To limit the realm and interference of politics.
18
Question
What is politics as compromise and consensus?
Page 2
Answer
Means of resolving conflict through compromise, conciliation, negotiation, not force or naked power.
19
Question
According to Bernhard Crick, what is politics?
Page 2
Answer
Activity by which differing interests within a unit of rule are conciliated by sharing power proportional to their importance to community welfare and survival.
20
Question
How does Crick view politics as a solution to order?
Page 2
Answer
Chooses conciliation over violence and coercion.
21
Question
What limitation does Crick's view of politics have?
Page 2
Answer
Limited to Western pluralist democracies; seen as a civilizing force but slow, leading to anti-political behavior like populism.
22
Question
What is procedural consensus in politics?
Page 2
Answer
Willingness to make consensus through consultation and bargaining.
23
Question
What is substantive consensus?
Page 2
Answer
Overlap of ideological positions.
24
Question
How is politics equated with power?
Page 2
Answer
Politics as power: ability to achieve desired outcomes through whatever means.
25
Question
What is politics as a struggle over resources?
Page 2
Answer
Struggle over scarce resources, with power as the means to conduct it.
26
Question
How is power defined in political terms?
Page 2
Answer
Ability to decide how scarce resources are allocated.
27
Question
What is authority in relation to power?
Page 2
Answer
Legitimate or accepted use of power.
28
Question
What are most political battles about?
Page 2
Answer
Battles for authority, like elections, to make decisions and use state power and resources.
29
Question
According to Kate Millett, what is politics?
Page 2
Answer
Power-structured relationships where one group controls another; stresses male dominance and female passivity.
30
Question
How does Marx view politics?
Page 2
Answer
Organized power of one class for oppressing another; superstructure from economic base rooted in class system.