EFFECTIVE POLITICAL INFLUENCE IS HARD WORK

The implicit understanding of politics is that the “special interests” and their lobbyists “buy” politicians.The problem with this view is not only that is it wrong, but also that it misdirects citizens. In short, it asks citizens to analyze politics without the actual politics –without the competition between competing interests, without the shifting alliances and coalitions, without parties and ideology, without any sense of there being a policy process, and without the many unpredictabilities and uncertainties that make politics actually interesting.