Participating in Political Life

Politics of Everyday Life

Here we consider the everyday political rough-and-tumble within a society. Preview the final story-diagram now.

Pericles—“just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean that politics won’t take an interest in you”—recognized in 360 BCE that everyone takes at least some part in politics by being:

• a member of a community and social groups,
• a recipient of politically-driven decisions, &
• a witness to politics as a spectator sport.

Playing an active part in politics is something else.

Politics is unceasing, relentless and part of daily social life because … the use of power is part of social life. Newspapers, radio and television assume that we never tire of hearing about politics.

Remember:  Political use of power occurs because … people are diverse and band together with like-minded others so as to obtain what is best for themselves and their particular group.

Reminder: How we got to this point in our inquiry.

• First, we clarified what politics is about.
• Then we saw that many problems are due to the immaturity of political institutions.
• From that Spiral trajectory framework, we worked out and mapped what determines political choice independently of the stage of maturity.

Taxonomic principles now suggest investigating a structural hierarchy using the levels of that Tree map. (In commencing this inquiry, it was not clear what would be discovered.)

Participating in Politics is Easy

You just decide to recognize your responsibility for what happens in society—and take this seriously. But how? To answer, we will start by clarifying the meaning of «responsibility for what happens in society».

The findings (view them here) may look obvious, but that is the paradox—seeing the obvious can be rather difficult. Clarifying elements in a simple step-by-step way makes it much easier.

«Accountability» for Political Participation

Work as an employee-of-an-organization requires accountability for its performance. A member-of-society working to influence its political choices lacks that sort of accountability … until political activity is organized. Once you are within a politics-oriented or politically-relevant organization, you have a status and others depend on you—so accountability comes into play. See your political responsibility options.

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• Continue by clarifying: responsibility for what?

Originally posted: August-2009; Last updated: 15-Nov-2010.