(This is an archived page, from the Patterns of Power Edition 3 book. Current versions are at book contents).
Politicians make decisions on behalf of the people. The processes of political decision-taking are deemed to be part of the Political Dimension of governance in this book’s analysis framework, whereas the impact of most of those decisions is felt in other dimensions:
· Politicians control many aspects of the economy, including regulation and macroeconomic management, affecting how markets operate (3.1.3). Some of their decisions may be taken purely for political effect.
· The government is also an actor in the economy, raising taxes (3.2.4) and spending taxpayers' money (3.2.3) on services that should be for the benefit of the population. Its employees are earning money in the same way as workers in the private sector.
· Politicians represent people in negotiations on human rights (4.2.4.4).
· They can try to use their status as figures of authority to exert moral influence (4.3.1), though this is not easy; for example John Major’s “back to basics” campaign in 1993, to raise moral standards, backfired when it became clear that the politicians themselves had all-too-human failings. The resulting media reports, such as a BBC article entitled The sleaze that won't go away, undermined his government’s leadership.
· In most countries, the legislature is composed of national politicians (e.g. the British Parliament or the American Congress) who have some degree of independence from the government or executive, under a separation of powers (5.2.8).
· The overall relationship between the government and the legal institutions has already been described (5.1.3).
· If governments use military force against other countries without the express agreement of the UN Security Council, they are exercising Ungoverned Power on behalf of the people.
There is political control of all these aspects of governance, so people’s influence upon the way they are governed is largely achieved through the mechanisms by which politicians are appointed and influenced – which is the subject of the rest of this chapter.