By Bernard Crick
A passionate case for political activity
Subject
Themes
Politics is a rare and precious civilising achievement, the activity by which differing interests within a given unit of rule are conciliated by giving them a share in power proportional to their importance to the welfare and survival of the whole community. Drawing on Aristotle, who first recognised that the polis is an aggregate of many members rather than a single unity, the fundamental argument establishes that politics arises from accepting the simultaneous existence of different groups, interests, and traditions under common rule. Tyranny, oligarchy, and totalitarianism represent alternatives that coerce rather than conciliate. The hallmark of free government is whether public criticism and opposition are tolerated.
Politics is a rare and precious civilising achievement, the activity by which differing interests within a given unit of rule are conciliated by giving them a share in power proportional to their importance to the welfare and survival of the whole community. Drawing on Aristotle, who first…
First published in 1962, at the height of the Cold War, this work entered a political landscape dominated by the confrontation between liberal democracy and Soviet communism. The Berlin Wall had been erected the previous year. The Cuban Missile Crisis would unfold within months. In newly independent…
The central argument rests on a precise definition of politics as the activity by which differing interests within a given unit of rule are conciliated by giving them a share in power proportional to their importance to the welfare and survival of the whole community. This definition is…
The desire for certainty at any price is one of the greatest dangers to political life. This desire manifests in two principal forms: the totalitarian ideology that claims to possess a single key to history, and the technological doctrine that treats all important problems as technical and therefore…
Democracy, the most promiscuous word in the world of public affairs, requires careful distinction from politics itself. The argument insists that democracy, taken alone and as a matter of principle, is the destruction of politics, even though democracy as a social movement must exist in nearly all…
One of the most counterintuitive and important claims is that political freedom is not an external force that pushes governments towards tolerance, but a practical response to the need to govern diverse societies effectively. Freedom does not precede politics; it is created by politics. This…
Politics is not a universal activity. It cannot exist everywhere, and it should not be expected everywhere. This insistence on the limits of politics is as important as the defence of its value, because exaggerating the scope of political activity is as dangerous as denying its importance. Politics…
Politics, too often regarded as a poor relation of other human activities, is in fact a rare and precious civilising achievement. It is not religion, ethics, law, science, history, or economics; it is not any one political doctrine such as conservatism, liberalism, socialism, or communism, though it…
Totalitarian rule marks the sharpest contrast imaginable with political rule. The totalitarian believes that everything is relevant to government and that the task of government is to reconstruct society utterly according to the goals of an ideology. This ideology offers a criticism of existing…
Democracy is perhaps the most promiscuous word in the world of public affairs. It can signify majority rule, liberty, equality, constitutional government, or simply all things bright and beautiful. Ernest Bevin once told a Trade Union Conference that it was not democratic for a minority to continue…
Nationalism is perhaps the most compelling of all motives that can lead people to abandon or scorn politics. Every feeling of human generosity is stirred by the struggle of an oppressed people to be free. Nothing can argue people who feel themselves to be a nation out of the belief that they are a…
A great danger to politics lies in the desire for certainty at any price. Technology as a social doctrine holds that all important problems facing human civilisation are technical and therefore soluble on the basis of existing or attainable knowledge, if sufficient resources are made available. This…
Politics may need defending against certain of its own friends. Conservatism, liberalism, and socialism are normally respectable political doctrines that act politically in ordinary times, arguing with great heat but observing conventions which avoid violence. Each is proud of its own existence, and…
Politics deserves much praise. It is a preoccupation of free men, and its existence is a test of freedom. The praise of free men is worth having, for it is the only praise free from either servility or condescension. Politics deserves praising as Aristotle's master-science, the only social activity…
The study of politics faces two primal curses. The first is the curse of separation: walls of fire flare up between the study of institutions and the study of ideas. The second is the curse of identification: when we ask for the marketplace of politics, students are happy to direct us to any old…
Politics as an activity is not merely compatible with what could prove to be a revolutionary form of egalitarian society but is its essential precondition. Political means are essential if one is to move towards socialist ends. Rosa Luxemburg warned Lenin after the Revolution in 1918, just as she…
The price of free politics, indeed of peace, can be high. Thirty years after the original essay argued that politics is the conciliation of naturally different interests, two sets of circumstances have changed, both greatly for the better, but not without a price. The inefficiency of Communist…
By Bernard Crick
Subject
Themes
Politics is a rare and precious civilising achievement, the activity by which differing interests within a given unit of rule are conciliated by giving them a share in power proportional to their importance to the welfare and survival of the whole community. Drawing on Aristotle, who first recognised that the polis is an aggregate of many members rather than a single unity, the fundamental argument establishes that politics arises from accepting the simultaneous existence of different groups, interests, and traditions under common rule. Tyranny, oligarchy, and totalitarianism represent alternatives that coerce rather than conciliate. The hallmark of free government is whether public criticism and opposition are tolerated.