X. Answer the following questions:

1. Do Americans separate politics from other aspects of life?

2. Does it seem rather strange to other nationalities?

3. What is the image of a politician like for most Ameri­ cans?

4. How do Americans participate in political life of the country?

5. What organizations do they join?

6. What is the job of senators and congressmen?

Xl agree or disagree with the following statements:

1. Americans 'talk politics' rather eagerly.

2. They say that «politics is everything, and everything is politics.»

3. But their image of politicians is less than worthy people.

4. The portion of Americans who actively participate in politics is quite big.

5. They volunteer to work in a candidate's election cam­ paign.

6. They may run for elective office themselves.

7. They do not criticize their leaders and do not want foreigners to do it as well.

8. They strongly believe in the value of the rule of the law.

9. They think about politics as an inseparable aspect of life.

XII. Divide the text into logical parts, make up an outline of the text and speak on the text in accordance with your outline. Word study

I. Give russian equivalents for:

A value of supreme importance; to deserve the pay; di­vision of power; ideologically ambiguous parties; internal impediments; to infringe on citizens' lives; propensity to

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Учебное пособие для философов и политологов

criticize; impartial laws; irrational judgments; arbitrarytastes; regardless of; beyond the realm of politics; to punish for illegal behavior; for the sake of; to abandon principles; a controversial question; general lack of interest.

II. GIVE ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS FOR:

Гордиться; гордость; участвовать; преимущество; слу­жащий; неизбежно; склонность; взаимодействие; личные связи; убеждение; наказывать; наказание; уступка; со­перничающие стороны; непосредственное участие; про­тиворечивый вопрос; необъяснимый.

III. COMPLETE THE SENTENCES. USE WORD-COM­ BINATIONS IN BRACKETS.

l.They are proud of (propensity to criticize; rational judgments; advantages in their rights;, participating in the political life; social interactions; personal connections).

2. They are involved in (conducting foreign affairs; criticizing their political leaders; idealizing compromise; economic dealings; talking politics).

3. They are subject to (strong public criticism; legal punishment; 'checks and balances' policy; irrational judg­ ments; illegal procedures).

4. They are likely to (deserve the pay; abandon their former principles; settle this controversial question; express their lack of interest; participate in this political action for the sake of their electors; be proud of their direct partici­ pation in the voluntary work; make a concession in this dealing; believe in personal connections; express their con­ viction as soon as possible).

IV. TRANSLATE INTO RUSSIAN THESE SENTENC­ ES. MAKE UP YOUR OWN SENTENCES WITH THE SIMILAR STARTING WORDS.

Part I

Political science

V. ASK YOUR FRIEND:

• if he is proud of the political system of the country he lives in;

• what view he has got of politics and politicians;

• if his government is too strong and powerful;

• if he talks politics with his friends;

• whether personal connections are very important for his career.

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Part

PART II

_{POLITICAL SCIENCE}

UNIT I

I. READ AND TRANSLATE THE TEXT.

DEFINING POLITICS

Politics, in its broadest sense, is the activity through which people make, preserve and amend the general rules under which they live. Although politics is also an aca­demic subject (sometimes, indicated by the use of 'Politics' with a capital letter), it is then clearly the study of this activity. Politics is thus inextricably linked to the pheno­mena of conflict and cooperation. On the one hand, the existence of rival opinions, different wants, competing needs and opposing interests guarantees disagreement about the rules under which people live. On the other hand, people recognize that, in order to influence these rules or ensure that they are upheld, they must work with others, hence Hannah Arendt's views or competing interests are reconciled with one another. However, politics in this broad sense is better thought of as a search for conflict resolution than as its achievement, as not all conflicts are, or can be, resolved. Nevertheless, the inescapable presence of diversity (we are not all alike) and definition of political power are 'acting in concert'.

This is why the heart of politics is often portrayed as a process of conflict resolution, in which rival scarcity (there is never enough to go around) ensure that politics is an inevitable feature of the human condition.

Any attempt to clarify the meaning of 'politics' must nevertheless address two major problems. The first is the

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mass of associations that the word has when used in everyday language; in other words, politics is a 'loaded' term. Whereas most people think of, say, economics, geogra­phy, history and biology simply as academic subjects, few people come to politics without preconceptions. Many, for instance, automatically assume that students and teachers of politics must in some way be biased, finding it difficult to believe that the subject can be approached in an impartial and dispassionate manner. To make matters worse, politics is usually thought of as a 'dirty' word: it conjures up images of trouble, disruption and even vio­lence on the one hand, and deceit, manipulation and lies on the other. There is nothing new about such associa­tions.

As long ago as 1775, Samuel Johnson dismissed politics as 'nothing more than a means of rising in the world', while in the nineteenth century the US historian Henry Adams summed up politics as 'the systematic organization of hatreds'. Any attempt to define politics therefore entails trying to disentangle the term from its unsavory reputation by establishing that politics is valuable, even laudable, ac­tivity.

The second and more intractable difficulty is that even respected authorities cannot agree what the subject is about. Politics is defined in such different ways: as the exercise of power, the exercise of authority, the making of collective decisions, the allocation of scarce resources, the practice of deception and manipulation, and so on. The debate about 'what is politics?' is worth pursuing because it exposes some of the deepest intellectual and ideological disagreement in the academic study of the subject. The different views of politics examined here are as follows:

• politics as the art of government

• politics as public affairs

• politics as compromise and consensus

• politics as power and distribution of resources.

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II. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: l)What is politics in the broadest sense?

2) What is politics as an academic subject? 3)What phenomena is politics linked to?

4. Why is the heart of politics portrayed as a process of conflict resolution?

5. What difficulties do researchers face in classifying the meanings of 'politics'?

6. What associations has the word 'politics' when used in everyday language?

7. How do S. Johnson and H. Adams define this word?

8. What are the main definitions of respected authori­ ties concerning 'politics'?

9. Whose viewpoint would you support?

10) Why is the debate about 'what is politics?' worth pursuing?

III. COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES:

1. Politics is linked to the phenomena of ... .

2. Arendt defined political power as ....

3. The heart of politics is portrayed as ... .

4. In clarifying the meaning of politics we face two problems ....

5. Samuel Johnson dismissed politics as ... .

6. Henry Adams summed up politics as... .

7. Politics is defined in different ways such as ... .

8. I think politics is ... .

IV. FIND IN THE TEXT FACTS TO PROVE THAT:

1. Politics is related to conflict, on the one hand, and to cooperation, on the other hand.

2. In understanding the term «politics» people face a lot of problems.

1. Sometimes politics is thought of as a «dirty» word.

3. There were scholars who dismissed politics and those who gave a high appraisal of its activity.

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Part II

Political science

5. Politics is a subject of deep intellectual and ideological disagreements.

5. DIVIDE THE TEXT INTO LOGICAL PARTS ANDMAKE UP A PLAN OF THE TEXT.

6. SUMMARIZE THE CONTENTS OF THE TEXT IN 8 SENTENCES.

VII. FIND IN THE TEXT SENTENCES WITH '-ING FORMS' AND TRANSLATE THEM INTO RUSSIAN IN WRITING.