Let’s scrutinise this definition. We might think about what other definitions Heywood’s understanding of politics depends on. Among the most obvious is the definition of conflict (and, by extension, its resolution). We might ask what would qualify as conflict, or its resolution. For instance, would a resolution of conflict necessarily require consensus (or everyone’s agreement on a particular solution) or simply a majority agreement? For some political theorists, politics is (or at least ought to be) a process of consensus building; others see it as more of an adversarial process, where reconciliation and consensus are not necessarily the desired outcome. This leads us to a second, perhaps even more fundamental question we could ask of this (or any other) definition of politics: On what normative (or value) judgements is it premised?
Both Heywood and Crick define politics as a process whose end goal is the reconciliation of differences and the resolution of conflict. Thus, put very simply, it could be argued that the definitions are premised on the assumption that difference and conflict are undesirable, and their reconciliation and resolution desirable. Without explicitly stating it, both Crick and Heywood start from the normative assumption that difference and conflict are ‘bad’ and their mitigation, reconciliation or resolution ‘good’. Therefore, their definitions of politics, although seemingly merely descriptive, are actually built on certain normative assumptions about what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘desirable’ and ‘undesirable’. This is important to realise, as political analysis is at least in part about unearthing the often implicit, normative assumptions present in political statements and practices.
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