Politics is about
- making complex choices
- fundamental questions of ideology
- the definition of friends and enemies
- the constitution of majorities so as to enable political action
Adam Tooze (Ones and Tooze: How Scary is DOGE?, 14 Feb 2025)
I’d add
- solving problems of co-ordination
- and one other that i’ve forgotten for the moment
oh and i guess, with Weber in mind, for definition of politics in government and again drawing down on Tooze:
- coercion
- collective will formation
- laws
- technical function
Stephen Bush in the FT on Badenoch:
First, she must recognise that like countries, politicians do not have permanent enemies or allies — they have interests.