What is politics?

When they hear ‘politics’, most people think of parliaments, votes and people in suits debating on the news. It sounds far removed from your own life – but it is not.

Here is an example: your class is discussing whether mobile phones must go into a box in the classroom. Some want to listen to music at break time; others are annoyed because someone is always scrolling. You discuss it, make suggestions and vote – and in the end, a rule applies to everyone, including those who were against it.

That is exactly what politics is about:

Politics is negotiating binding rules for living together.

Three parts of this definition carry all the weight:

• Negotiating – people discuss, negotiate and work towards solutions, rather than someone simply giving orders.
• Binding – the rule applies to everyone affected, not just those who agreed to it.
• Living together – it is about questions that affect a community, not private decisions.

Whether you spend your pocket money on headphones or a trip to the cinema is your private choice – it is binding only on you. Whether football is allowed in the playground affects everyone who spends their break there. As soon as a question affects the community and the answer applies to everyone, you are right in the middle of politics.

Four concepts can help you make sense of almost any political situation – from a class discussion to world politics:

1. Interests are the wishes and concerns of individuals or groups: the class wants a trip, you want a lie-in, your neighbour wants peace and quiet. Interests are not a bad thing – everyone has them, and that is completely normal.
2. A conflict arises when interests clash – when not everyone's wishes can be met at the same time. There is only one playground: some people want to play football, while others want to sit in peace. You cannot do both on the same patch at the same time.
3. Power is the ability to influence decisions or put them into effect. Power takes many forms: the teacher can impose a rule, the majority can win a vote – but someone with good arguments, plenty of allies or great persistence also has power. Power is not automatically bad; what matters is how it is used and whether it is subject to rules.
4. A compromise is a solution in which both sides give a little and both gain something. Football on one half of the playground, benches on the other: nobody gets everything – but everyone can live with it.

Remember the connection: different interests lead to a conflict when they clash. Power plays a part in negotiating a solution – and the outcome is often a compromise that then becomes a binding rule for everyone.

This is how the pattern works in real life – for example, in a municipality where young people have been skating in the school car park for years:

The interests: a group of young people want a proper skatepark – with ramps instead of kerbs. They collect signatures and put their request to the local authority. Residents near the possible sites have a different interest: they fear noise late into the evening. And the local authority itself has to watch its budget – money spent on the skatepark will not be available for other things.

The conflict: all three interests are understandable – but they clash. A skatepark right next to the school would be great for the young people, but a nuisance for the neighbours. Having no skatepark at all would be the cheapest option for the budget, but would ignore the wishes of many young people.

The negotiation: the local authority invites everyone to a meeting. The young people present their arguments, show plans and suggest sites. Residents raise their concerns. They negotiate: which site? What opening hours? How much can it cost? Here, power takes different forms – good arguments, lots of signatures, but also the local council's final say.

The binding rule: in the end, the local council agrees on a compromise: the skatepark will be built – but on the outskirts rather than in the middle of the neighbourhood, with quiet hours from 20:00 and a smaller budget than hoped for. This decision now applies to everyone: to the young people who would have preferred a larger park, to the residents who did not want one at all – and to everyone who never spoke up.

The graphic shows you these four steps – they work in the same way for the skatepark, for classroom rules and for major political questions.

You can find the skatepark pattern at every level – only the scale changes:

• In your class: who can sit where? Are mobile phones banned? Where will the class trip go?
• In your school: how is playground space shared out? What rules apply in the school building?
• In your municipality: a skatepark or not? Where will new buildings go, and what will be renovated?
• Nationally and internationally: how high are taxes? What climate targets apply?

It is the same everywhere: interests clash, people negotiate, and the final decision is binding on everyone. Parliaments and governments are particular places where this negotiation is organised according to established rules – but politics does not begin only there. It begins wherever people live together.

Two distinctions help you take a closer look:

1. Not every decision is politics. What you eat, what music you listen to, what you save up for – these are private decisions. They are binding only on you.
2. Not every argument is politics. If two friends fall out and then simply go their separate ways, the essential part is missing: a rule that applies to the community. It becomes political only when the outcome is a binding decision.

And why should you know all this? Because you are already involved: you live with others, have interests and are affected by rules that others negotiate – today in the playground, soon as an adult in your municipality. If you recognise the pattern, you can have your say instead of just watching. That is exactly what “Democracy as a principle” and “Authoritarian systems today” explore: how does a democracy organise this negotiation – and what happens when it is abolished?