Political As An Arena

Harold D: Lasswell, the well-known American political t has described politics as an “arena”, where struggle is being waged fc gets what, when and how”. The “arena” is not a place but is a process of the struggle which begins before the arena itself, which he called “pre-arena”. Moreover, the arena struggle produces a result, or outcome, which Lasswell called “post-arena”. The “post-arena” itself is a struggle waged between new groups or classes of people; who try again and again to get “what, when and how”.

In other words, politics is not any one particular struggle at a particular/time or between particular people at any particular place. Instead, it is a continuous and everlasting struggle, which has gone on among the^ people before and will last so long as there are people to struggle for the good things of life or values. Furthermore, the arena of struggle may be as small as a city or even a smaller locality, and as large as a country or the whole world. It may be a local struggle, a national struggle or an international struggle. But political struggles always vary in intensity.

They may be as mild as an act to persuade or influence a political rival. They may become much stronger acts to control or dominate a group or people. But at times they may become fierce, even bloody, struggles for power to rule a country or to conquer another. Indeed, it is with such struggles that books of history are filled and the great dramas and epics of world literature are written. Whether peaceful or violent, these struggles are the stuff of which politics is made in all countries, climes and times.

Politics means a system for establishing the ground norms or ground rules, whereby conflicts in the society or country are resolved and the government is chosen or held. Quincy Wright says: politics is “the art of influencing, manipulating or controlling groups so as to advance the purposes of some against the opposition of others.

 

  • Add Your Comment

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.