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Sunday, August 20, 2017

What is the scope of politics?


Hi, getting visibility among core literary public is benchmark of publishing success and this message is part of an aggressive online campaign for the promotion and visibility of my two books [1] Political Internet and [2] Intimate Speakers among core reading public in online space.
It will be really helpful if you are able to help me forward, share, tweet, post, or tag this message or parts of this message among potential beneficiaries of the ideas in the books in your network, your friend’s network or their networks?

Or anyone should according to you benefit if they work broadly on anything related to social media, Internet, society, politics, cyber sexuality, Internet pornography, intimacies,  women and online misogyny, introverts, underprivileged people, Diaspora, cyberspace, Internet in education, International relations, digital politics, social media and state, public sphere, civil society, social capital, contentious politics and so on.

1. Political Internet: State and Politics in the Age of Social Media, (Routledge 2017)

Buy it on Amazon: 


Preview on Google Play: 


Preview on Google Books: 


Preview on Kindle:


Publisher Website:



2. Intimate Speakers: Why Introverted and Socially Ostracized Citizens Use Social Media, (Fingerprint! 2017).

Buy it on Amazon: 


Flipkart


Blog Review


goodreadsreviews



Contact the author


Biju P R

Author, Teacher, Blogger

Assistant Professor of Political Science

Government Brennen College

Thalassery

Kerala, India



My Books
1. Political Internet: State and Politics in the Age of Social Media,
(Routledge 2017), Amazon https://www.amazon.in/Political-InternetStatePoliticsSocialebook/dp/B01M5K3SCU?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&ref_=tmm_kin_swatch_0&sr=



2. Intimate Speakers: Why Introverted and Socially Ostracized Citizens Use Social Media, (Fingerprint! 2017)
Amazon: http://www.amazon.in/dp/8175994290/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487261127&sr=1-2&keywords=biju+p+r 


Hi, getting visibility among core literary public is benchmark of publishing success and this message is part of an aggressive online campaign for the promotion and visibility of my two books [1] Political Internet and [2] Intimate Speakers among core reading public in online space.
It will be really helpful if you are able to help me forward, share, tweet, post, or tag this message or parts of this message among potential beneficiaries of the ideas in the books in your network, your friend’s network or their networks?


Or anyone should according to you benefit if they work broadly on anything related to social media, Internet, society, politics, cyber sexuality, Internet pornography, intimacies,  women and online misogyny, introverts, underprivileged people, Diaspora, cyberspace, Internet in education, International relations, digital politics, social media and state, public sphere, civil society, social capital, contentious politics and so on.


1. Political Internet: State and Politics in the Age of Social Media, (Routledge 2017)


Buy it on Amazon: 




Preview on Google Play: 




Preview on Google Books: 




Preview on Kindle:




Publisher Website:






2. Intimate Speakers: Why Introverted and Socially Ostracized Citizens Use Social Media, (Fingerprint! 2017).


Buy it on Amazon: 




Flipkart




Blog Review




goodreadsreviews






Contact the author




Biju P R


Author, Teacher, Blogger


Assistant Professor of Political Science


Government Brennen College


Thalassery


Kerala, India





My Books
1. Political Internet: State and Politics in the Age of Social Media,
(Routledge 2017), Amazon https://www.amazon.in/Political-InternetStatePoliticsSocialebook/dp/B01M5K3SCU?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&ref_=tmm_kin_swatch_0&sr=



2. Intimate Speakers: Why Introverted and Socially Ostracized Citizens Use Social Media, (Fingerprint! 2017)
Amazon: http://www.amazon.in/dp/8175994290/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487261127&sr=1-2&keywords=biju+p+r 




It is passport to best cities in the world, visa to best universities in the world and key to best jobs in the world.

Well you wanted to know the scope of politics! It’s just like scaling up Mt. Everest. Why? It is because of the fact that politics is a universal activity. So it is better to ask what in our social life doesn’t fall under the realm of politics. There is almost none. No human activity infact remains outside reach of politics. Hence the question is very difficult to answer. However, here is a modest attempt to identify some area of our life where politics has significance or put it otherwise, politics has scope.

Politics studies ironies of our time.

Well you wonder what does it mean to say ironies of our time. See, on 21 August 1911, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, also known as La Gioconda, was stolen from the Louvre-The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the world's largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. Vincenzo Peruggia, the famous Italian thief was charged. The next day world media had given wide coverage to the news.  Next day onwards, there was unprecedented rush on the Museum. Visitors infact arrived not to see the Mona Lisa, but the empty space it created because of the fact that it was stolen.
Ironies are different. In Julius Caesar Shakespeare portrayed this in a beautiful anecdote.  Julius Caesar was a dictator of Rome who was murdered by a group of conspiring senators. Caesar's friend Marcus Brutus was part of the conspiracy. In the Shakespearean play, Caesar was stabbed once by each of his attackers. He resisted at first, until his friend Brutus appeared and stabbed him. Caesar’s final words is, "Et tu, Brute?" The betrayal is all the more surprising to Caesar because of his friendship with Brutus and Brutus' reputation for honor. The first line conveys Caesar's shock and disappointment. The second line, Caesar's acceptance of death, is sorrowful. He cannot bear to survive the pain of Brutus's betrayal.
Here comes the million dollar question of our social life. Ironies! The messages of the stories are that human life is replete with contradiction in which quite the opposite things occur to our surprise. Pain, agonies, sufferings, contradictions, dilemmas; human beings are unable to overcome the sudden surge of ironies of our time.
Look around. The United States which claims tobe a land of continuous democracy and protector of liberalism and human rights dropped atom bombs on innocent civilians on 6 and 9 August 1945. In the name of ideologies, lakhs of people were brutally murdered which were more than the number civilians killed during Worlds Wars. Most of the time our parliamentarians do not participate in duscussions for which people elect them but spread pandemonium in the house. These question or ironies of our times needs to be answered. Look at politics. There are some answers.

Politics studies conspiracies of our time.

The Banana massacre was a massacre of workers for the United Fruit Company that occurred on December 6, 1928 in the town of Ciénaga near Santa Marta, Colombia. After U.S. officials in Colombia, along with United Fruit representatives, portrayed the worker's strike as "communist" with "subversive tendency", in telegrams to the U.S. Secretary of State, the United States government threatened to invade with the U.S. Marine Corps if the Colombian government did not act to protect United Fruit’s interests. An unknown number of workers died after the conservative government of Miguel Méndez sent the Colombian army to end a union strike for better working conditions. Gabriel García Márquez, renowened Colombian writer, depicted a fictional version of the massacre in his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, which portrayed how conspiracies bring unending sufferings to our life.
Our world is replete with conspiracies. Government conspires. Citizen conspires. Groups, elites, authority, etc., conspires to protect their interest. The world needs to uncover conspiracies. World needs to bring conspirators under justice. Politics as a discipline studies all aspects of conspiracies which bring in damages and sufferings to people.

Politics studies violence of our time.

On 7 January 2015 at about 11:30 local time, two brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Armed with assault rifles and other weapons, they killed 12 people and injured 11 others. The gunmen identified themselves as belonging to the Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen, which took responsibility for the attack.
The reason according to terrorist groups was that the cartoon had portrayed prophet in poor light. So it was blasphemy according to Islamic belief system.
Violence occurs in different ways. Intellectual violence is also as lethal as physical violence but former is least understood. Politics studies violence in its different forms. And find solution to it. 


Politics surveys alchemy and biography of the political life in the country.

India became independent in 1947. First general election in 1952. Nehru became prime minister. 1962 China attacked India. Communists call it just confrontation. 1964 Nehru died. From 1964 to 1966 Lal Behadur Shastri was the prime minister. Indira became prime minister in 1966. Indira era prolonged upto 1978. Morarji Desai became prime minister in 1978. Mandal commission was appointed. In 1980 Indira became prime minister and was shot dead in 1984 by her own body guards. Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister of India and was assassinated in 1989. Chandra Shekhar and V P Singh became subsequent prime ministers of hung parliament. V P Singh implemented controversual Mandal report. Rao as PM in 1991. Valpayee as PM in 1996. H D Devagowda and I K Gujaral as PMs im 1996. In 1999 Vajpayee as PM from first non-congress party to complete five year tenure. 2004 Manmohan Singh as PM and complete two tenures in office upto 2014. Narendra Modi as PM of India.
What is said is the political biography of India. Any student of politics will have minute details of the political processes of the country. So study of politics is also conditioned by an understanding of political processe of the nation.

Politics produces intellectuals

2007 issue of Foreign Policy magazine had 100 best intellectuals survey. Noam Chomsky topped the list. It had listed 17 political scuentists, largest from a discipline in the survey carried. This discipline produce thinkers, thought leaders, social critics, think tanks. They observe society and give direction to the society. Politics as a discipline has immense scope to that respect.
Politics organizes research
According to Thomson Reuters report, political science is one of the disciplines producing largest number of impact factor high quality research journals in the world. It studies anything. From rocket science to pushpin, anything falls under the research interest of politics. Family, nation, technology, culture, environment, almost everything falls into its research scope.
Inshort, politics is everywhere. So its scope is unlimited. Its research potential is beyond our power to quick understanding. You can find best jobs in the world in this study area. It is passport to best cities in the world, visa to best universities in the world and key to best jobs in the world.

This is lecture notes prepared by Biju P R, Assistant professor of political Science, at Govt. Brennen College, is useful only for undergraduate level students. 

Thursday, August 17, 2017

What is the Nature of Politics. Undergraduate Level Lecture Notes

This is lecture notes prepared by Biju P R, Assistant professor of political Science, at Govt. Brennen College, is useful only for undergraduate level students. 





Politics is a universal activity. All people engage in this act. Even Daniel Defoe’s novel character, Robinson Crusoe will engage in this act. Not only humans, even other animals will have some sort of political activity. Swarm of bees, ants, bats, and other animal species will have their own organized society where they engage in some sort of political act. Chimpanzee Politics, a book by Franz se Waal is an example. Hence the question what is the nature of this universal and most important human activity. 



Though politics is a universal activity; its nature differs from place to place and people to people. Different writers interpret nature of the political act in differing ways. Each interpretation is unique in its own ways. Different lenses can be used to scale up the nature of political act. 
I
One group of writers says that political act is a distinct human activity that is related to State. All what you do in your capacity as a citizen of the State and in relation to the government is political act. In this case, you caste vote, pay tax, obey laws, take part in the activities of political parties, take membership in political and other organizations recognized by state. That means you are a political animal.  There are many definitions to politics as activity confined to state and government. Here politics is viewed as an art of government. Look at their definitions.
(a) Paul Janet, "Political Science is the part of social science which treats of the foundations of the State and the principles of Government."
(b) Bluntschli believes that "Political Science is a science, which is concerned with the State, endeavors to understand and comprehend the State in its essential nature, various forms, manifestations and developments."
(c) Garris, famous German author is of the opinion that "Political Science deals with the origin, development, purpose, and all political problems of the State."
(d) Gettell says, "It is, thus, a study in the past, present and future, of political organisations and political theories."
(e) According to Lord Acon, "Political Science is concerned with the State and with conditions essential for its development."
(f) Dr. Garner believes that "Political Science begins and ends with the State."
(g) According to Leacock, "Political Science deals with Government."
(h) Seeley says, "Political Science investigates the phenomena of Government as Political Economy deals with Wealth, Biology with life, Algebra with numbers and Geometry with space and magnitude."
All the definitions limit politics as an activity confined only to the realm of State. Here it is mean that you eat, dress, employed, work, etc are a political act within the larger ambit of State in your life. 
II
A second interpretation gives an entirely different nature to politics. You can divide society in to private and public spheres. In Politics, Aristotle declared that ‘man is by nature a political animal’, by which he meant that it is only within a political community that human beings can live ‘the good life’. From this viewpoint, then, politics is an ethical activity concerned with creating a ‘just society’; it is what Aristotle called the ‘master science’. However, where should the line between ‘public’ life and ‘private’ life be drawn? 
You go to church, go to market to purchase some household items, you buy a car, and you own a new mobile. Are these public acts? No. They are all private acts. But no one can impose you church, household items, a car, or a mobile. So, it is the sole discretion of individual to buy or not. The line between public and private is much contested.
Political act is that act which is part of the public sphere. So, your love affairs, religious beliefs, life choices, food selection, etc., are private choices where as your political belief, participation in social movements, protest against government policies, etc., are public act. Hence they are political act.

III

A third dimension of the nature of politics is that politics is compromise and consensus. Life is replete with conflict. We have problems. We disagree with neighbours, we oppose government policies. We have boundary disputes with neighbours. We are not certain what happens to us the next moment. There are uncertainties in life. Life hasn’t much guarantee. No surety to what we do in our life. Hence we need an agency that can negotiate in times of problems and conflicts. So politics is that activity which gives order and solution to our human problems.
Politics [is] the activity by which differing interests within a given unit of rule are conciliated by giving them a share in power in proportion to their importance to the welfare and the survival of the whole community. (Bernard Crick in his book In Defense of Politics).
Key to politics is therefore a wide dispersal of power.  Politics is ‘that solution to the problem of order which chooses conciliation rather than violence and coercion’ says Bernard Crick. 
Here politics is viewed as a policy science. It is an act that manages public affairs and things.

IV
There is a radical view of the nature of politics. Cal lit power view. Politics is power. As an act related to power, anything can be politics. Power is at the nature of things. Power is there in the family. It is there in the way people think, act, purchase, eat, socialize, etc. Hence, power is everywhere. So is politics. 
It is said that if Africans had conquered the world, the measure of beauty would not have been white, rather it would be black. So, social world is created by those who have power. The power holders narrate the social world. Those powerless simply believe it is. 
The nature of politics as power has got wide recognition in the writing of Harold Laswell. He defined politics in terms of power. 
For example, why people buy too much gold on Akshaya Tritiya is also known as Akha Teej. That means market has influencing our thinking power and brings us to market by their ideology. Or just think of another example. In a leading news paper, it was featured that land price is increasing. So it is becoming difficult for people to buy small house plots. But at the same time, it was reported that price of flats is affordable. So, ordinary people think that they can now buy flats instead of house plots. So market has social power, which control lour thinking mind. So who will have power really control the society. 

Conclusion

Kahlil Gibran, Lebanon's most famous poet said Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave and eats a bread it does not harvest. Politics is at the heart of everything. What you eat. How you think. What you buy. How you travel. Everywhere politics prevails.

Politics is a universal act. Its nature is a complicated idea. Its nature has as many interpretations as the number of people who have gathered to discuss its nature in a place.

This is lecture notes prepared by Biju P R, Assistant professor of political Science, at Govt. Brennen College, is useful only for undergraduate level students.