Politics and Conventional Studies of it

Politics is about who gets what, when, and how (Lasswell 1958)
To elaborate politics is about control, allocation, production, and use of resources and the
values and ideas underlying those activities.
Resources include land, water, money, power, education, among other tangible and intangible.
Conventional political studies, however, usually limit investigation into the questions and
processes implied in this view of politics to governments, states, and the organised efforts to
influence what those two institutions do or to change them altogether.
Citizens in many parts of the world also typically relegate politics to what government officials,
politicians, lobbyists, and the like do. Journalists and other public commentators also usually talk
and write this way, thereby deliberately or unintentionally encouraging and perpetuating this
small arena for politics.
This conventional view of politics has several shortcomings. (SHORTCOMINGS Meaning ito yung mga
pagkukulang ng conventional view of politics pagkukulang, mga masamang epekto etc.)

1. One is the negative image just referred to, which marginalises the many positive and
constructive aspects of political activities. Occasionally news accounts and politicians speak of
politics and political in a positive manner, such as reporting that conflicts between
Palestinians and Israelis require political solutions, not military ones. Far more prevalent,
however, are off-putting characterisations of politics, obscuring the necessity, really, of politics.
A society, any society, needs to devise ways to allocate resources. Those ways and the process
of determining them are political. The allocation can be done badly, of course, but it can also be
done well and somewhere in between.
2. Second, conventional political studies and commentary concentrates on a minute fraction of any
countrys population primarily government officials, political parties, influential individuals,
and activists in organisations trying to affect what government authorities do.

By excluding a huge percentage of populations in a country, the conventional view also puts
politics in a realm far from most citizens virtually relegating politics to places or arenas that
few in society have any connection with or involvement in.
3. Third, such a restricted view of politics misses a great deal of what is politically significant. The
allocation of important resources is rarely confined to governments and related organisations.
Resources are distributed in corporations, factories, universities, religious groups, families, and
other institutions. Conventional political analysis gives minimal attention to the political
processes and significance for resource use, production, and distribution within these and other
non-state entities. And what attention is given is usually only about the interaction between
such entities and state or government officials and agencies.
4. Fourth, the conventional view privileges organisations that are explicitly political or seeking to
influence politicians, governments, and state agencies. Yet, as emphasised already, political
issues, processes, and outcomes occur far beyond these organisations. Moreover, people need
not be organised to be political. Individuals and groups ponder and wrestle with problems and
issues regarding the use, production, and distribution of resources among themselves, for their
communities, as well as by or for their governments.
(READ THE EXAMPLE ABOUT PHILIPPINES SAN RICARDO VILLAGE. AND THE VIETNAMS RED RIVER
DELTA)

Main point : The concerns of ordinary people were not manifested in organisations that pressured
government officials; they were not encapsulated by political parties or revolutionary movements; nor
were people even saying much publicly and openly about these matters. Thus, to conventional political
studies, they are invisible and do not matter.

Hindi raw masyadong napapansin ng mga conventional analyst yung problema ng mga ordinary people.

Even though they involve essential political questions who gets what, when, and how they do not
count as politics, in the eyes of most political analyses, because they are not expressed in the manner
and places conventional political studies expect.

Types of Politics

Official Politics - Official politics is one of those two. It involves authorities in organisations making,
implementing, changing, contesting, and evading policies regarding resource allocations. The key words
here are authorities and organisations. Authorities in organisations are the primary actors. The
organisations include governments and states, but are not limited to those forms.

The people involved in official politics hold authoritative positions; they are authorised to make
decisions or have a substantial hand in an organisations decision making and implementation
processes. Official political activities can range from public to private (even secret) spheres.

Advocacy Politics - Advocacy politics is another type of politics. It involves direct and concerted efforts
to support, criticise, and oppose authorities, their policies and programs, or the entire way in which
resources are produced and distributed within an organisation or a system of organisations. Also
included is openly advocating alternative programs, procedures, and political systems. The key words
here are direct and concerted.

Advocates are straightforwardly, outwardly, and deliberately aiming their actions and views about
political matters to authorities and organisations, which can be governments and states but need not
be. Advocacy behaviour can extend from friendly, civil, and peaceful to hostile, rebellious, and violent.
Advocates may be individuals, groups, or organisations. Usually advocacy politics is public, but some
advocacy politics, such as that of a revolutionary organisation, may have clandestine features.

Everyday Politics - Everyday politics involves people embracing, complying with, adjusting, and
contesting norms and rules regarding authority over, production of, or allocation of resources and doing
so in quiet, mundane, and subtle expressions and acts that are rarely organised or direct.8 Key to
everyday politics differences from official and advocacy politics is it involves little or no organisation, is
usually low profile and private behaviour, and is done by people who probably do not regard their
actions as political.

It can occur in organisations, but everyday politics itself is not organised. It can occur where people live
and work. Often it is entwined with individuals and small groups activities while making a living, raising
their families, wrestling with daily problems, and interacting with others like themselves and with
superiors and subordinates.
Forms and Significance of Everyday Politics

1. Resistance
2. Supports
3. Compliance
4. Modifications and Evasions

(BASAHIN MO NA LANG MAN!!) HAHAHA pati example para solid paliwanag mo sa prof. lagi kang
magbigay example. Tandaan mo kada forms may examples yan.