(This is an archived page, from the Patterns of Power Edition 3 book.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.