Chapter ONE

Politics: Setting the Stage

I. What do political scientists study?

Study politics and analyze it.

Ex. Measure just how much it actually costs a country to lose a war, devise a new system of voting in primaries that might have led to a different set of candidate for most presidential elections, study the spread of welfare reforms across the states, study why democracies almost never wage war on other democracies.

II. Politics: What is it?

Politics is the making of common decisions for a group of people through the exercise of power by some members of the group over other members.

III. Politics as the making of common decision

"Company politics" (Ford company's design decisions are not political decisions for the US, but are political decisions for Ford's stockholder, managers, and workers, because they set a common policy for the company)

"Family ...

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