Okay kids. I knew I promised you guys that I would write clipnotes for you on this blog. You have kept reminding me several times and I just kept forgetting. Baaaaaad bad professor, I am.
Here, since I am keeping my words, is the clipnote for the introduction of our required book.
Let's get back to the introduction of this book. First of all, I have to remid you (and myself) that I have chosen this book for our class because the book discusses why politics should be studied and it encourages students to think about "daily politics" by pointing observable experience of political world (that ordinary people like you and me would be able to experience) in the book's content so that the readers could see themselves as active actors in political world. (This is kinda "Yes, we can!" ideology).
The first thing the introduction tells us is that "politics is important." Why? Actually, the book doesn't really explain why politics important but, at least, it tries to explain that politics is not a very easy thing to define.
We may take a look at "what" constitutes politics first. In a country with representative democacy like Thailand, we may think of general election when thinking of the word politics, or we may just simply think of what the Prime Misnister and the Members of Parliament do at the govenment house. Is politics only about voting in general elections or what happens at the government house? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!
Politics is almost about everything in our lives--our peers; our languages; our clothes etc. Therefore, that also means that politics can occur everywhere as well. That was the answer of "where" politics takes places.
To study politics, you need to know that there are 2 main approaches in acquiring political knowledge: 1. Normative appoarch, which is what ougth to be or what should be in the IDEAL world (Thailand is a land of smile and peace.. bla bla bla) and 2. Empirical approach, which is what actually happens in the REAL world (There were many violent demonstrations in the past years).
Also, the unit of analysis is another important thing that you need to make up your mind when studying politics. What is your subject of inquiry? What do you want to make sense out of? The smallest unit of analysis is the individual level of analysis--to analyze an individual--or it can be an analysis of functions and structures (such as governmental regimes, political ideologies, countries, etc).
Apart from that, as we already studied in the class that after the Second World War, there has been an attempt to make politics science. And here we go "political science". But can we really take politics as science? If we can, we may need to bare in mind that, first, there is no clear cut between fact and value and between what is right and what is wrong. For instance, we cannot put the former PM Thaksin Shinawatara and this current PM Abisit Vejjajiva (I hope that he is still the current PM when this blog is launched) on a scale and say who is a better PM without bringing our judgements into the discussion.
Second, even if we use statistical methods to collect and analyze data, we are only able to explain the data or trends over time, but we are not able to explain political phenomena by placing causal relationship on the set of data. For example, we know that most people in the South of Thailand vote for the Democratic Party but we don't know why they vote for the party and we cannot say that every single person from the South has to vote for the particular party. If they have to, that would be very sad and very undemocratic.
Finally, we have to be aware of "the language of politics." The language of politics is pretty much what we use to express ourselves. Now remember that when we speak, we do not only express our ideas but we also tell people who we are. That is the matter of "identity." I think the French would best present the case. That is, the French is known for being proud of their beautiful language and most French would reuse to speak other languages even if they know how to.
The language of politics, like politics itself, is sensitive to context--time and space. Which means that what we use to express certain idea in the past may not express the same idea today. To give an example, the word "homely" is used to describe a warm person in the UK and oriental coutries, but it means boring in the US. So, you better don't try complementing your American girlfriend that she is very homely... (You have been warned!).
Last thing about the language of politics is the radicals, such as feminists. Wait, I don't mean that to be feminists is to be radical, but I admit that there are some feminists who ae practicing the ideology a bit too radical. In other words, I have been friend with feminists who believe that the word human kind, which means the race of human, is rooted from "MAN" so we should change it to "womankind" in order to protect women from suppression; and that the word "history" is combined from "his" and "story"!!! So, in their perspective, history is nothing bigger than great tales of men. So, they ask why we can't change it to "herstory"???
Alright, I believe that to change the whole system of languange--so that women can have a better life--is way too and too irrational, and also very sad. It is not about the language kids. It is about the system.
That is for the introduction. Keep checking in for updates on the following chapters!
Nite,
Surada
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