Chapter 3 – Finding Your Voice & Making It Heard
3.1 What Is Politics?
Politics is the process by which individuals and groups decide on rules, laws, and policies that affect everyone. At its best, the goal of politics is to organize our collective lives in a way that helps us live together peacefully and share access to goods and services we could not secure alone. It involves discussion, debate, compromise, and above all, cooperation.
While politics has often been described as a struggle for power and resources, it does not always have to be framed as a contest with winners and losers. Political scientist Harold D. Lasswell defined politics as “who gets what, when, and how.” This definition highlights the distribution of resources and power, but it does not preclude fairness, balance, or mutual benefit.
Decisions about “who gets what” can be made through competition, but they can also be shaped by compromise and collaboration.
In practice, politics often requires people with different viewpoints to sit down together, find areas of agreement, and work toward solutions that balance competing needs. Power and resources can be shared within communities in ways that allow many voices to be heard and many interests to be met.
Cooperation does not erase conflict, but it creates space to focus on common goals rather than permanent divides.
By examining the workings of state and local government, we see politics as more than a series of struggles. The compromises and cooperative decisions made in city councils and the General Assembly demonstrate how people with diverse perspectives can find common ground and create policies that serve the broader community.
Compromise in Politics
Compromise is often easiest to achieve when elected officials belong to the same political party. Shared values, priorities, and party platforms give them a common starting point for negotiation. This does not mean agreement comes automatically. Differences in region, constituency needs, and personal beliefs still matter, but there is usually more room to work things out.
Between opposing parties, however, compromise is harder to find. Deep differences in ideology, electoral competition, and polarized political climates often make cooperation rare. In today’s politics, we see more examples of gridlock than genuine give and take. Gridlock occurs when opposing sides are unable to reach agreement, which prevents action or decision-making from moving forward.
This textbook will return to this theme again and again. Whether we are examining state budgets, city councils, or nonprofit coalitions, the question of when compromise happens and when it breaks down will be central to understanding how public service decisions are made.
References
Barbour, Christine, and Gerald C. Wright. 2015. Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in American Politics. 7th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ Press.
Lasswell, Harold D. 1936. Politics: Who Gets What, When, How. New York: Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill Book Co.
