Max Veber
The policy is the powerful drilling of firm breeds spent simultaneously with passion and a cold eye estimation. The purpose of such policy - achievement of a maximum reasonably possible.
POLICY AS THE PUBLIC PHENOMENON
I. As soon as the ancient person has provided to itself existence bases - fire, meal, dwelling, he has created two more largest spheres of own ability to live: art for self-expression (since rock paintings) and to the politician for dialogue with similar. Last arises in connection with complication of public life and necessity of realisation of such collective interests which did not give in to satisfaction without intervention of "the third force” in the form of the state and its institutes of the public power. Etymologically designating “that is connected with the state”, the politician, nevertheless, from the very beginning arises as the multiple-valued public phenomenon which completely not is not reduced only to the government or even to the state. The policy appears as the public work kind, each political fact is the fact social. At the same time any a little scientifically strict definitions of a policy invariably anyhow will are connected with relations concerning the power and the state. The known British political scientist, the author of popular textbooks David Held (a sort. In 1951) in the general view characterises a policy as struggle for the organisation of human possibilities, as the phenomenon of general interrelation (internal and external) social groups, institutes and the societies, caused by all kinds of ability to live of people in their public and private form. In its opinion, the policy finds the expression in cooperation, negotiations and struggle round questions of use, manufacture and distribution of resources, therefore “policy studying is, first of all, development of history of possibilities and history possibilities”.
The history of representations and development of ideas about the politician reflect both permanent complication of the real political world, and character of mutual relations of the person and the state during each concrete time. On the historical periods it looked as follows:
- On the first,государствоцентричном a stage (approximately till XVI century), the approach to a policy was based on position about the state as the carrier of the Supreme power over the person. It developed for streamlining and the best organisation of social life, and for a substantiation of necessity of its existence were involved or mythological and religious thoughts on a divine will, or reasonings on a natural order and rational character of the state form of association of people occupying given territory. All their political life has been included in an orbit of an attraction of the Supreme power, and in a policy is inherent some kind of a unipolar orientation the main thing in which was submission of the person to the state;
- At the second stagethe maintenance of political life gradually changed. A policy and rules of a game of politics have definitively been separated from the ethical bases. In the politician began to see a field for maintenance of the consent and performance of a certain reasonable public contract of the state and a civil society, and also their representatives among themselves. Unilateral submission of the person established over the state ox gave way to mutual obligations of partners when a civil society in whole and its estates achieved a recognition of the natural right to put pressure upon the state mode, and even to change it. Thus the state still used unconditional domination over the citizen;
- In the XX-th century the third comes,социоцентристский a stage in development of views on a policy. On change to positions about monopoly of the uniform Supreme and sovereign government ideas of pluralism, the coordination of interests of the various social groups dividing among themselves influence on the state and a society come. With formation in the most developed countries of democratic systems the paradigm of vision of the world of a policy will be transformed also: in it transition from the state monocentrism to social polycentrism, from the uniform and indivisible sovereignty of a sovereign to participation in the power of all basic groups of citizens comes true. In the is formal-historical plan it meant that the priority is given to a society and people making it, instead of the state;
- Last decades new, already the fourth signs of approach are appreciable by the account, the big stage in evolution of understanding of the policy reflecting the newest changes in the real maintenance of political life of postindustrial mankind. The advanced consciousness and knowledge of the person of the beginning of 3rd millenium induce it to participation in various forms of self-management which quite often become transnational. These phenomena are meanwhile inherent only in the developed countries, but they testify to occurrence of new approaches to judgement of mission of a policy in the changing world.
II. Consideration of conceptual approaches to policy interpretation allows to draw a conclusion on existence of different social and its scientific parties, multidimensionalities its character. In a society of the politician acts in unity of three interconnected aspects:
- As sphere of public life;
- As one of many kinds of activity of social subjects, their collective and individual behaviour;