Clive Gifford - A Quick History of Politics: From Pharaohs to Fair Votes

FROM PHARAOHS TO FAIR VOTES

Clive Gifford and Steve Gavan

Do you like stories with heroes, villains, rebellion, double-crossing, and, occasionally, death? Great, youve come to the right place!

This book tells the surprising story of POLITICS and its many battles of ideas and armies, of thinkers and stinkers, as they struggle for power or the chance to make a difference.

The word politics comes from the ancient Greek word politikos, meaning "AFFAIRS OF STATE." A state is an area of land and the people it contains, all under the control of a GOVERNMENT . The government makes the laws and rules that people in that state live by.

Governments can be small , large , KIND , or brutal . So can politicians, the people who engage in politics 24/7.

Politics isnt just for governments and politicians, though. It happens whenever people in GROUPS face tough choices and have different opinions on how to get the best outcome. Finding ways to work together, make decisions, and forge agreements can be tough.

Far from being dusty and deadly dull, politics can be exciting, outrageous, crucial, and dangerous. Its often messy, occasionally heroic, and sometimes heartbreaking.

Strap yourself in as this book races you through how politics has developed from dictators to democracy, how individuals have made a difference, and how new nations gained their freedom. Along the way, youll encounter inspiring campaigners, as well as rotters, plotters, and a real-life rhino that triumphed on election day.

You dont have to be a wannabe president, mayor, or even stand for school council to enjoy the story of politicsjust interested in the world around you, how it works, and how it can be changed.

You should!

Politics isnt just rich, old men (and a few women) arguing rudely on TV and posing for photos.

From BLACK LIVES MATTER and CLIMATE CHANGE campaigns to the differing ways countries help their poorest or tackled the 2020 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC , politics affects everyone. Wherever there are decisions to be made and disputes to be settled, politics is usually present.

Your life is ruled by hundreds of laws and regulationsmany sensible, some a bit bonkers. Most are created by LOCAL and NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS . These bodies also fund many things you enjoy (parks, leisure facilities, school) and things you may not enjoy, but are important (policing, waste collection, hospitals... er, school).

You might be passionate about issues such as climate change, discrimination, violence in your neighborhood, poverty or endangered wildlife. If you are, it pays to get engaged with politics because its the main way improvements can and do come.

Remember how the word "POLITICS" came from the ancient Greeks? Well, "IDIOT" does too. It comes from the Greek word Idits meaning a person not interested in politics, people, and the outside world.

Now, there are quite a few idits in the world and not everyones interested in or understands all of the issues all of the time. So, in more than half the worlds countries today, people called REPRESENTATIVES are chosen by the public in elections to look after everyones interests in politics and government.

But this wasnt the case many centuries ago...

Long before parliaments, presidents, and elections, early people wandered the land, hunting and gathering. Sometimes, they had tricky decisions to make.

Over 10,000 years ago, people first began switching from roam to home. They started living in the one place, growing crops and rearing livestock. Life got complicated and decisions multiplied over things like food, water, land, how the community should be organized, and how to protect it from future threats like famine or attack.

How EARLY COMMUNITIES made decisions varied. Some groups probably relied on their eldersletting the oldest (and hopefully wisest) people make the decisions.

We call this a GERONTOCRACY .

By the way, if you delve deeper into the whole politics shebang, youll find a lot of words ending in -cracy or -archy. These describe different ways of governing. Heres a couple more that might have been used in the earliest settlements.

MERITOCRACY = rule by people chosen on merit as the most talented or smart.

OLIGARCHY = rule by a small group of people who hog all the power and make decisions that suit them.

ANARCHY = rule by no one! Everyone has total freedom. No ones in charge.

Sometimes, a single person was in complete charge. This is called AUTOCRACY and it became commonplace in early states around the world.

Having a single person in total chargean AUTOCRAT