THIS CHAPTER discusses what politics is and the ways in which scholars have attempted to understand it. The first serious professional students and teachers (Greeks such as Plato [427-347 Bc] and Aristotle 1384-322 Bc) made politics the centre of the 9uELSU twenty-first century academics are still seeking to explain politics 4 'scientifically'. This chapter discusses the meaning, importance and problems of such an enterprise. a POLITICS IN EVERYDAY LIFE d Is the study of politics a sensible activity? Anyowatcher of tele- vision news can see that democracies wary in apparent effectiveness, A equality and longevity, from peaceful and alitarian regimes as in United States of America, to ently fragile new democracies in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Dictatorships seem to thrive at one time like the former Soviet Union, sending the space and dominating half the world, Only to crumble away as the result of forces which few seemed able to predict. There are times s difficult not to sympathise with the view that such matters