Politics: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

128 Pages·2000·0.83 MB·English

by  Kenneth Minogue

Kenneth Minogue
POLITICS
A Very Short Introduction
1
3
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© Kenneth Minogue 1995
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Politics: A Very Short Introduction
‘Kenneth Minogue’s book fills a real need, and is the best work of its
kind since the publication of Bernard Crick’s In Defence of Politics. ... It
is meritorious in two significant ways. First, it casts a wide net. ...
Second, it addresses its subject matter with sophistication ... the book
is beautifully written.’
William Maley, Policy
‘Kenneth Minogue is a very lively stylist who does not distort
difficult ideas.’
Maurice Cranston
‘Minogue is an admirable choice for showing us the nuts and bolts of
the subject.’
Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating
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in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next
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Very Short Introductions available now:
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Continental Philosophy
Julia Annas Simon Critchley
THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE COSMOLOGY Peter Coles
John Blair CRYPTOGRAPHY
ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia Fred Piper and Sean Murphy
ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn DADA AND SURREALISM
ARCHITECTURE David Hopkins
Andrew Ballantyne Darwin Jonathan Howard
ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Democracy Bernard Crick
ART HISTORY Dana Arnold DESCARTES Tom Sorell
ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DRUGS Leslie Iversen
THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH Martin Redfern
ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY
Atheism Julian Baggini Geraldine Pinch
Augustine Henry Chadwick EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY
BARTHES Jonathan Culler BRITAIN Paul Langford
THE BIBLE John Riches THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball
BRITISH POLITICS EMOTION Dylan Evans
Anthony Wright EMPIRE Stephen Howe
Buddha Michael Carrithers ENGELS Terrell Carver
BUDDHISM Damien Keown Ethics Simon Blackburn
CAPITALISM James Fulcher The European Union
THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe John Pinder
CHOICE THEORY EVOLUTION
Michael Allingham Brian and Deborah Charlesworth
CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson FASCISM Kevin Passmore
CLASSICS Mary Beard and THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
John Henderson William Doyle
CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard Freud Anthony Storr
THE COLD WAR Galileo Stillman Drake
Robert McMahon Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh
GLOBALIZATION paul E. P. Sanders
Manfred Steger Philosophy Edward Craig
HEGEL Peter Singer PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood Samir Okasha
HINDUISM Kim Knott PLATO Julia Annas
HISTORY John H. Arnold POLITICS Kenneth Minogue
HOBBES Richard Tuck POSTCOLONIALISM
HUME A. J. Ayer Robert Young
IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTMODERNISM
Indian Philosophy Christopher Butler
Sue Hamilton POSTSTRUCTURALISM
Intelligence Ian J. Deary Catherine Belsey
ISLAM Malise Ruthven PREHISTORY Chris Gosden
JUDAISM Norman Solomon PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY
Jung Anthony Stevens Catherine Osborne
KANT Roger Scruton Psychology Gillian Butler and
KIERKEGAARD Freda McManus
Patrick Gardiner QUANTUM THEORY
THE KORAN Michael Cook John Polkinghorne
LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews ROMAN BRITAIN
LITERARY THEORY Peter Salway
Jonathan Culler ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler
LOCKE John Dunn RUSSELL A. C. Grayling
LOGIC Graham Priest RUSSIAN LITERATURE
MACHIAVELLI Catriona Kelly
Quentin Skinner THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
MARX Peter Singer S. A. Smith
MATHEMATICS SCHIZOPHRENIA
Timothy Gowers Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone
MEDIEVAL BRITAIN SCHOPENHAUER
John Gillingham and Christopher Janaway
Ralph A. Griffiths SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer
MODERN IRELAND SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
Senia Pasˇeta ANTHROPOLOGY
MOLECULES Philip Ball John Monaghan and Peter Just
MUSIC Nicholas Cook SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce
NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner Socrates C. C. W. Taylor
NINETEENTH-CENTURY SPINOZA Roger Scruton
BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and STUART BRITAIN
H. C. G. Matthew John Morrill
NORTHERN IRELAND TERRORISM Charles Townshend
Marc Mulholland THEOLOGY David F. Ford
Available soon:
THE TUDORS John Guy FUNDAMENTALISM
TWENTIETH-CENTURY Malise Ruthven
BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan Habermas Gordon Finlayson
Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling HIEROGLYPHS
WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman Penelope Wilson
AFRICAN HISTORY HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson
John Parker and Richard Rathbone HUMAN EVOLUTION
ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Bernard Wood
THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
BUDDHIST ETHICS Paul Wilkinson
Damien Keown JAZZ Brian Morton
CHAOS Leonard Smith MANDELA Tom Lodge
CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead MEDICAL ETHICS
CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy Tony Hope
CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE THE MIND Martin Davies
Robert Tavernor Myth Robert Segal
CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko NATIONALISM Steven Grosby
CONTEMPORARY ART PERCEPTION Richard Gregory
Julian Stallabrass PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
THE CRUSADES Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot
Christopher Tyerman PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards
Derrida Simon Glendinning THE RAJ Denis Judd
DESIGN John Heskett THE RENAISSANCE
Dinosaurs David Norman Jerry Brotton
DREAMING J. Allan Hobson RENAISSANCE ART
ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta Geraldine Johnson
THE END OF THE WORLD SARTRE Christina Howells
Bill McGuire THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn Helen Graham
THE FIRST WORLD WAR TRAGEDY Adrian Poole
Michael Howard THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
FREE WILL Thomas Pink Martin Conway
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Foreword
‘In our time’, Thomas Mann remarked, ‘the destiny of man presents its
meaning in political terms.’ This is certainly true for a lot of bores in
universities who believe that one cannot enjoy a poem or conduct a love
affair without at the same time making a political statement. At a
common-sense level, this view is no less foolish than the sub-Freudian
opinion that everything we do is a sexual revelation. As Yeats responded
to Mann:
How can I, that girl standing there
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
Common sense is the point. In politics things are real, and propositions
are (more or less) true or false. People bleed and die. Politics, with
difficulty, sustains the common world in which we may talk to each
other, and philosophers who dissolve experience into perspectives,
horizons, sensa, values, dominations, cultures, and the rest will destroy
that common world. Politics is the activity by which the framework of
human life is sustained; it is not life itself. The sceptical philosopher, the
moral relativist, the rancorous academic social critic, the religious
visionary, and the artistic seer have their place in our civilization, but
their intrusion into politics has not been happy, especially during the
last two centuries. Experience shows that politics, for all its capacity to
order many ways of life, needs to keep its distance from these
adventures. Yet the activity of politics is human life at a stretch, full of
heroism and duplicity. To understand it is to know how varied it can be,
at this time and that place.
This introduction seeks in a short compass to place politics in both a
disciplinary and a historical context. It attempts to bring both the
theory and the practice of the activity into a common focus, and along
the way to slough off an error or two. But the author fully realizes that
one man’s error is likely to be another’s enthusiastic commitment.
K.M.
September 1994
Contents
1
Why Despots Don’t Belong in Politics 1
2
The Classical Greeks: How to be a Citizen 10
3
The Romans: The Real Meaning of Patriotism 19
4
Christianity and the Rise of the Individual 25
5
Constructing the Modern State 34
6
How to Analyse a Modern Society 43
7
Relations between States: How to Balance Power 52
8
The Experience of Politics: I. How to be an Activist 61
9
The Experience of Politics: II. Parties and Doctrines 71
10
The Experience of Politics: III. Justice, Freedom, and
Democracy 79
11
Studying Politics Scientifically 86
12
Ideology Challenges Politics 94
13
Can Politics Survive the Twenty-first Century? 103
Further Reading 112
Index 114