What Is Politics?
In a broad sense, politics is the activity through which people decide the rules they live under. Politics may be understood as an arena and as a process (Buchanan & Badham, 2020). As an arena, politics can be considered the art of government or public affairs, depending on who exercises control in society. As a process, politics may also represent consensus or power.
What Is Political Science?
Political science deals with political theory and its application in the government at all levels of the organization. Political science analyzes public institutions and political communities to make the best political decision based on empirical evidence (Goodin, 2017). It also studies public policies and political behavior to identify society’s political development (Lowndes et al., 2017).
Is COVID-19 Political?
COVID-19, as a pandemic that drastically affected everyone worldwide, has a massive impact not only on the condition of welfare but also on politics, which makes it political. First of all, COVID-19 has primarily changed the course of elections. Health and safety have changed politicians’ concerns and arguments for reelection (Yoosefi Lebni et al., 2020). The split in political views over COVID-19 and attitude to precautions caused many debates and political disputes. Not only did the topic of the election speeches change, but the conventions and campaigns suffer without the public’s ability to gather. The registration process itself got complicated as many offices get closed because of the pandemic (Barrios & Hochberg, 2020). Many states now embrace mail-in ballots as a safer alternative to voting in person. On the brighter side, the issue of COVID-19 raised an important issue of healthcare and brought people together in their political beliefs even virtually. Thus, COVID-19 became a massive political event worldwide.
References
Barrios, J. M., & Hochberg, Y. (2020). Risk perception through the lens of politics in the time of the covid-19 pandemic. National Bureau of Economic Research.
Buchanan, D., & Badham, R. (2020). Power, politics, and organizational change. SAGE Publications Limited.
Goodin, R. E. (2017). Political science. A companion to contemporary political philosophy, 183-213.
Lowndes, V., Marsh, D., & Stoker, G. (2017). Theory and methods in political science. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Yoosefi Lebni, J., Abbas, J., Moradi, F., Salahshoor, M. R., Chaboksavar, F., Irandoost, S. F., Nezhaddadgar, N., & Ziapour, A. (2020). How the COVID-19 pandemic effected economic, social, political, and cultural factors: A lesson from Iran.International Journal of Social Psychiatry. Web.