3min chapter

4. How Political Definitions Shape Reality

WHAT IS POLITICS?

CHAPTER

The Importance of the Word Government

The word government was used to describe any kind of authority in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The same principles and analytical categories that apply to states also apply to private businesses, he says. If we don't broaden the term government to include the private sphere, then we have no words for the concept of private government at all - it becomes an almost invisible force in our lives. Seeing those connections gives you power; not seeing them takes away that power.

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