Theories of politics

Politics
Polity
Policy

Oberle, Monika & Weißeno, Georg (Hrsgg.)(2017). Politikwissenschaft und Politikdidaktik · Theorie und Empirie. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. S. 23. {March, James G. & Olsen, Johan P. (1984). The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life. The American Political Science Review Vol. 78 September, 1984 No. 3. S. 735.}

Politik enthält dabei stets Aspekte der Trias
— Polity (Form von Politik, z. B. politisches System, politische Institutionen, aber auch politische Kultur),
— Politics (Prozess von Politik, z. B. Wahlen, Interessenvertretung, Aushandlungen, entscheidungsbezogene Konflikte und Kompromissfindung) und
— Policy (Inhalt von Politik, z. B. bestimmte Lösungsvorschläge zu gesellschaftlichen Problemen, also bspw. die Agenda einer politischen Gruppierung oder eine Gesetzesvorlage.

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Although the concept of institution has never disappeared from theoretical political science, the basic vision that has characterized theories of politics since about 1950 is contextual, inclined to see politics as an integral part of society, less inclined to differentiate the polity from the rest of society; reductionist, inclined to see political phenomena as the aggregate consequences of individual behavior, less inclined to ascribe the outcomes of politics to organizational structures and rules of appropriate behavior; utilitarian, inclined to see action as the product of calculated self-interest, less inclined to see political actors as responding to obligations and duties; functionalist, inclined to see history as an efficient mechanism for reaching uniquely appropriate equilibria, less concerned with the possibilities formal adaptation and non-uniqueness in historical development; and instrumentalist, inclined to define decision making and the allocation of resources as the central concerns of political life, less attentive to the ways in which political life is organized around the development of meaning through symbols, rituals, and ceremonies.