What is politics? This apparently simple question is not as straightforward as it may first seem, and it raises many further and difficult questions. For example, is politics a universal mfeature of all human societies, past and present? Or is it confined to some types of society only and , if so, which societies and why? Is it possible that some societies have been, are or will be without politics? Is politics tied to certain sites, that is institutional arenas where it takes place? Is it solely concerned with issues and decisions affecting public policy, that is, the whole society? Or may politics be found in all groups and organizations, large or small, formal or informal? And how, if at all, is it to be distinguished from other social and economic activities? For instance, do wars, civil conflicts and revolutions represent extreme forms of politics? Does bargaining between businesses over prices and terms of contracts, or between managers and workers over pay and conditions, count as politics? Or are they simply expressions of economic processes in the form of market forces? can they be both? and what of discussions in a family as to whether to redecorate the kitchen or go on holiday? is that politics?
The issue can be taken further: is politics an activity which is confined to the human species alone? Or is it possible to detect politics (however rudimentary) amongst other species, as Frans de Waal argues in his entertaining book about power and sex amongst the chimpanzees, entitled Chimpanzee Politics (1982). In that book he defines and illustrates chimpanzee politics as "social manipulation to secure and maintain inflşuential positions' (de Waal, 1982). His definition is not significantly different from Harold Lasswells's account of the study of politics as "the study of influence and the influential.......
