6.1.1 The Definition of ‘Political’

 (This is an archived page, from the Patterns of Power Edition 3 book.  Current versions are at book contents)

Michael Oakeshott, in his inaugural lecture as Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics, defined politics as:

"the activity of attending to the general arrangements of a set of people whom chance or choice have brought together.  In this sense, families, clubs, and learned societies have their ‘politics’." [1]

This definition encompasses the multi-level and diverse nature of what this book refers to as the Political Dimension of governance, which consists of:

the processes by which people are appointed to take decisions on behalf of others;

their organisation and performance when exercising their authority;

and the mechanisms by which the population interacts with those who hold positions of authority.

A political system can be thought of as providing a means of continuous negotiation between the people and those to whom they entrust many governance decisions. 



[1] Michael Oakeshott, Political Education, in Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays, 112.