As we will discuss in class, "politics" emerges when people who disagree with one another have to make decisions on behalf of their group. Along these lines, one of the most apt definitions of politics come from David Easton, an American political scientist. He defines politics as "the authoritative allocation of values."
In plain language, Easton identifies politics with groups making binding choices about how to manage their material resources (things of value) and modes of behavior (actions of value or moral values).
So, sometimes a thing is political because a group decides how to dole out its tangible resources. The $700 billion (that's $700,000,000,000 or $7 x 10^11) "troubled asset" bailout that Congress approved last fall is an example of this. Sometimes a thing is political because a group makes decisions about "the good." The current debate over teaching evolution in public schools in Texas is good example of this kind of politics.
Politics of both types are all around us. Anytime a group of people make choices about "values," its political. Husbands and wives creating family budgets, fraternities and sororities deciding on dues, churches deciding whether to perform same-sex marriages and commitment ceremonies, cities making zoning rules, states making criminal laws, and countries setting taxes and making declarations of war are all examples of politics.
