WHAT IS POLITICS?| 9All of these government roles are signifi cant, in that they aff ect the lives of
many Americans. They are controversial, in that Americans disagree about what
government should do in each area. Government actions in each area are shaped
by process, or the rules that determine who gets to select diff erent policies.
What Is Politics?
We defi ne politics as the process that determines what government does. It
includes ways of behaving a nd ma king decisions that a re common in ever yday life.
Many aspects of our discussion of politics will probably sound familiar because
your life involves politics on a regular basis. This statement will become clear in
light of the three key ideas of this book.
First, politics is confl ictual. As the struggle over the debt limit illustrates, the
questions debated in election campaigns and the options considered by policy
makers generally involve disagreement at all levels. The federal government does
not spend much time resolving issues that everyone agrees should be decided in a
pa r ticula r way. Rather, the ma king of government policy la rgely involves issues on
which people disagree, sometimes strongly, which makes compromise diffi cult—
and this is a normal, healthy part of politics. Compromise is often necessary to
produce an outcome that can be enacted and implemented.
Second, political process matters. Governmental actions don’t happen by
accident—they result from conscious choices made by elected offi cials and bureau-
crats. Politics, as the process that determines what governments do, puts cer-
tain individuals into positions of power and makes the rules that structure their
choices. Indeed, the political process is the mechanism for resolving confl ict. The
most obvious example is elections, which democracies use to resolve a fundamen-
tal confl ict: deciding who should lead the country.
Third, politics is everywhere. Decisions about what government should do or
who should be in charge are integral to society, and they infl uence the everyday
lives of all Americans. Politics helps to determine what people can and cannot do,
their quality of life, and how they think about events, other people, and situations.
In the following sections we take a closer look at each of these three key ideas.
Key Idea 1: Politics Is Confl ictual
Political scientists have long recognized the central role of confl ict in politics.
In fact, one prominent theory in the mid-twentieth century saw confl ict among
interest groups as explaining most outcomes in American politics. The political
scientist E. E. Schattschneider argued that the scope of political confl ict—that
is, how many people are involved in the fi ght—determines who wins in politics.
Others have argued that some confl ict is essential for small-group decision mak-
ing: if nobody challenges a widely shared but fl awed view, people may convince
themselves that the fl aws are not a problem. Bureaucratic politics, congressional
politics, elections, and even Supreme Court decision making have all been studied
through the lens of political confl ict.^4
Despite the consensus that confl ict in politics is essential, most people do not
like confl ict, either in their personal lives or in politics. Rather than talking about
DEFINE POLITICS AND
IDENTIFY THREE KEY
IDEAS THAT HELP EXPLAIN
POLITICSpolitics The process that
determines what government does.