04.08.08
The Axis of Politics
Classifying actions as political or not has led to a great deal of confusion regarding the scope of a government’s role, and the overlap between politics and other fields, such as religion, culture and economics. In this post, I would like to present my personal understanding of the factors that make a matter political or not, which will help give a more precise definition of what politics is, and how it relates to other fields.
What’s an Axis?
Academic disciplines all share the effort of trying to understand something about the world. But what distinguishes one discipline from the other, when they are all trying to make sense of a single, interconnected reality? How can one draw a distinction between politics and sociology and education and philosophy and psychology and biology and chemistry and physics, etc. They all seem to overlap and deal with common issues. So what makes an issue political or philosophical? What distinguishes psychology from biology, or biology from chemistry?
Although there is a great deal of overlap between academic disciplines, the focus of each discipline differs. Biology, for example, is the study of life. It’s concerned about the physical affects of gravity on the human body, but not its effects on a waterfall. If it’s to be concerned about waterfalls, it’s only to the degree they are connected to life (living organisms that exist or depend on waterfalls, how the conditions within a waterfall affect the opportunities for life in it, etc). The focus of biology is life, and it looks at everything else from that lens.
A project manager in an IT company needs to think about making a computer system as reliable as possible, as well as to consider the profit it can make for the company he works in. Factors related to software development fall under “technology,” whereas issues related to profit fall under “business,” even though both concerns exist for the same project. It is this focus, or axis, upon which all other concerns revolve that distinguish one category from another, or one discipline from another. When the manager makes a decision to cut down on costs, it’s a business decision. When he considers how this will be implemented using the technology available, it is a technical decision (usually, these decisions aren’t made by a single manager, but through the contributions of different departments, which is why there is often tension between departments, and lack of communication, because each department is considering the issue from its own focus).
The Popular Axis of Politics
The axis, or focus, or concept, usually associated with politics, and upon which politics is seen to revolve is power. Any matter that involves power, within a social context, is considered a political issue. The power of the government, the power of the military, the power of the people, etc. are all political issues. The lifestyle of a people is not a political issue (it’s a cultural one). The extent to which a government can influence this lifestyle, and the extent to which the people can demand, and live by the lifestyle they choose are political issues, because they are seen within the context of the power each party has to influence the people’s lifestyle.
However, because politics is often associated solely to power, the way in which politics is approached is often distorted. Interactions between different factions are not considered beyond the view of a power struggle. There is no conception of justice. The more power a faction can acquire, the stronger its political standing. “Might is right,” according to this understanding of politics.
And while power plays an important role in our understanding of politics, it shouldn’t be the sole axis by which politics is understood. There are four other axes I believe need to be considered when classifying social issues, so that political matters aren’t related only to power.
The Missing Axes
Apart from power, the other axes associated with politics are:
- Authority
- Identity
- Rights
- Freedom
To have a more comprehensive outlook on politics, all these factors must be taken into consideration when dealing with any political issue. The degree to which each factor is relevant to any issue varies. For a better understanding of these axes, I will attempt to give an overview of each:
Authority: This axis is strongly associated with power, but authority implies that the power exercised is legitimate, and people have accepted this legitimacy. This means that there is no need for coercion or the use of force by the authority to assert its power, or rule. The right to rule has been granted by the people.
Identity: Many conflicts arise based on the people, customs, religion, language, culture, geography, nation, that people see themselves associated with. But this association is so strong that it is considered part of the character of the people. They identify with one nation and not other nations, one religion and not other religions, etc. Identity both unites people and fragments them. This axis plays a crucial role in local, regional and global politics. In fact, what defines “local”, “regional” and “global” are precisely the identities that we adopt, such as Kuwaiti, a person from the Arabian Gulf, an Arab, a Middle Easterner, a Muslim, etc.
Rights: There are two prominent definitions for rights: what the government grants its citizens the permission to do, and what the citizens are naturally and morally entitled to do, or have the choice of doing, without government intervention. “You don’t have the right to do that” could mean that it is illegal for you to do it, but not necessarily immoral for you to do it; or that you are not morally entitled to commit that action.
Freedom: When I spoke to one of my cousins about my understanding of politics according to these axes, he wasn’t pleased with me making a distinction between rights and freedom, because he considered freedom a right. But I believe that freedom has a wider scope than rights. In my opinion, freedom is the extent to which the political rights acknowledged by the government correspond to one’s individual rights. Freedom doesn’t involve a right, but all rights. If the government restricts your opportunities to work because of your race, then you are not granted your freedom. And if the government forces an employer to accept you as an employee because of your race, then you are also not exercising your freedom, because you are not entitled to the job to begin with (there is a gap between what the government considered your right, and the natural right of the employer to choose his employees).
All political outlooks take these factors into consideration, but each has its own definition of these factors, and attaches its own significance to them. In my next political article, I will give specific examples on how these factors come into play in politics. To simply look at politics from the lens of power is dangerous. By simply acknowledging the role “rights” play in the political equation, we may reverse the common saying of “might is right” to “right is might,” which will introduce a totally new outlook to the political situation we are living in.
