Some of the many basics | Red Smoothie
I'm currently blasting "Orange Juice" by Noah Kahan while sipping on a sweet strawberries, cherries, apples, Guarana, and flax seeds smoothie. Oh, yea about that, I've made the questionable decision not to drink for the next six months, dry monthing it as our generation would say. What was I thinking? Not much, really. Who starts writing about drinking and then decides to quit drinking? This guy! [insert funny James emoji]
Anyway, the reason behind this is that I'm genuinely trying to improve my overall well-being and prove to myself that I'm not just the funny guy you call for a Friday pint because you know he'll close the doors of the bar and has a couple of funny stories to tell. Nice I am oversharing again… In short, you'll be seeing more about politics than drinking from me over the next six months, and I suppose that's a good thing, right?
Now, onto politics. Where do you even start when you don't know where to start? I'm Belgian, spent most of my life in Madrid, and currently work in the big smoke, aka London capital. I guess I can begin by understanding these three (different? I'm not sure yet) systems and delving into their political history, voting systems, and parties. That sounds like a good idea, but I still need to grasp the basics. Let's take a step back and dive deep into the history of politics and its origins.
What is politics? According to the British Academy Blog (a reliable source, right? It's got "academy" in it!), "We often refer to something as being 'political' or 'all about politics' when it boils down to a power struggle between people or groups. The idea is that politics is a process of maneuvering to assert rival interests." That's enough for my simple brain to comprehend. Basically, we have a population that needs some form of governance, and politics refers to the power struggle among decision-makers for the greater good (in theory, ufff dangerously close to opinionated writing bromigo… well I have warned you guys don’t really know what I am talking about).
Just quoted a source (any pointers on properly blog referencing are appreciated!) This probably deserves its own article: "What makes a source valuable?" Can I trust the first source I find on a topic, or do I need to cross-check everything? My many years of deep academia scream BIG no, but in the interest of time and recognizing that I'm not an authority on the topic, take everything you read here with a grain of salt. Let's not forget that the purpose of this is to figure things out as we go.
But before I go off on a tangent, yes, it makes sense to me. Look at Belgium, Spain, and the UK. The politics of these countries all involve the clash of political parties (another fancy term, basically groups of like-minded people, in very non academia based short) and maneuvers to make decisions for their constituency.
Before we delve into the systems of these three countries (and hopefully more), can we address how exciting this is? New topics consistently arise that need development. Parties, for example, what are they outside of a social gathering where your friends are trying to find love or just a night with some whiskey curves? What about the population? Who falls under your constituency? (another fancy word, am I right? I remember that one from my university years!). From the little time I've spent living I know that often people disagree with the aspect of falling under certain constituencies (lived in both Spain and Belgium remember…).
You'll discover this as you hopefully read more of these, I write as I think and speak. It's not worthy of a Nobel Prize and can be a bit all over the place, but bear with me. Hopefully, it will improve over time.
In the interest of staying on track for a newbie like myself, and so that you can at least learn something new today, let's break it down:
Politics: as per the British Academy above
Political party: “A group of people organized to acquire and exercise political power” (as per Britannica, another source that sounds fancy but isn't a blog, bugger!)
Constituency: as defined on the official website of the UK Parliament “A constituency is the specific geographical area represented by each MP in the House of Commons. People who live in an MP's constituency are known as their constituents.” A little side note, as this seems very UK-focused, do people in a different geographical area also vote for their political representatives and are they also called constituents? I’ll save you the trouble after a bit of digging, I'm happy to confirm that this term is not limited to the UK and is used in general discussions around politics (thank you, university, again! Two times in a day, that's a record).
I won't spam you with more mind blowing knowledge today! See you next week, and we'll probably delve deeper into these topics and expand. These first sessions will set the foundation and tone for more contemporary conversations down the line!
James-Alexander