By Yash Nawaz
What is politics and psychology? How are both related to each other? I have tried to figure out these questions to understand political campaign.
What is politics?
As defined in Merriam-Webster, politics is noun, meaning. a) The art or science of government. b) The art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy. c) The art or science concerned with winning and holding control over a government.
As defined in oxford dictionary politics is noun (treated as singular or plural) meaning a) the activities associated with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties having power. b) The academic study of government and the state. c) A particular set of political beliefs or principles.
There can’t be a single definition of politics. Different people define it in their different ways.
The father of political science, Aristotle says that it is a practical science and considered as master of all sciences.
According to Machiavelli, “politics is an art of coming to power and retaining the power”.
According to Karl Marx, “politics is merely organized power of one class to oppress another class”.
Politics is struggle for power. It won’t be wrong to say that politics is an art, a practical science and considered as a concept. Politics is something related to government. It is a struggle to come in power and to be in power. Different political organizations come under the politics. It is an attitude towards masses. Aristotle says “human is a political animal”. In this view, everyone is engaged in politics at different stages of their life.
What is psychology?
The word “psychology” is derived from two Greek words, psyche (soul) and logas (a rational course or a study).
The meaning of psychology has changed from time to time. First it was a study of soul. After rejection of this, it was defined as study of mind. Then it came to study of consciousness. This definition was also rejected on the grounds that i) it has very narrow vision on account of its not talking about the subconscious and unconscious activities of the mind. ii) The introspection method for the study of the conscious activities of the mind proved the most subjective and unscientific method and iii) It could not include the study of consciousness of animals.
In 19th century onwards, psychology began to be defined in terms of the study of behavior. William MacDougall, the first man to define psychology in terms of behaviour says “psychology is a science which aims to give us better understanding and control of the behavior of the organism as whole”. (1949, P38)
Likewise there have been different definitions of psychology by different psychologists through the ages.
In a nutshell, it is a study of behavior of all living organisms, including their subconscious and unconscious state of mind.
How are politics and psychology related?
Psychology has an applied branch in field of politics. The term “political psychology” was first introduced by Adolph Bastian in his book “Man in history”. (1860)
In psychology, we study behaviours. Sometimes it is of government, sometimes of masses and sometimes of individual. Psychology can contribute to build leadership quality. A person can study politics and derive political gains with the use of psychological principles and techniques. Psychology of group behavior, social distance, propaganda, judgment etc. have provided techniques for gaining popularity and achieving political gains in terms of providing a successful politician and providing a function able government.
How are psychology and politics effected by each other?
After broadly understanding politics, psychology and their relation, it won’t be wrong to say that psychology and politics effect each other in terms of casting vote, leadership qualities, making policies, popularity, political attitude etc. for example, an incident takes place in an area, and now the politicians will have debate and discussion. This contributing in making opinions and masses will be effected by their perception. Another example is exit polls. Here the politics of propaganda will effect in decision making.
Political campaign in India:
A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process. In democracy, political campaign often refers to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen. India is a diverse country. We have multi-lingual, -religion, -caste, -cultural states having different regions. This country is known as world largest democracy. According to election commission of India, 814.5 million people were eligible to vote in 2014 election with an increase of 100 million voters since the general election in 2009.
Political organizations campaign in a such a manner that they can attract most number of voters. They raise common issues faced by the population. They talk about welfare of society and make their manifestos. They try to convey a message in their campaigns. They campaign according to region and state.
Some guidelines from election commission of India for campaigning are:
- Government bodies are not to participate in any recruitment process during the electoral process.
- The contesting candidate and their campaigners must respect the home life of their rivals and should not disturb them by holding road shows in front of their houses.
- The code instructs that public spaces like meeting grounds, helipads, government guest houses and bungalows should be equally shared among the contesting candidates. These spaces should not be monopolized by a few candidates.
- The ruling should not use its seat of power for the campaign purposes.
- The ruling party ministers should not make any ad-hoc appointment of officials, which may influence the voters in favour of the party in power.
This is called code of conduct from the general election 2014. These are only 5 main points from it.
Political campaign in recent elections:
The Indian general election, 2014 was held to constitute the 16th lok sabha. It was the longest election in the country’s history, running in nine phases, from 7th April to 12th may 2014. A total number of 8,251 candidates contested for the 543 lok sabha seats. The Bhartya Janta Party and alliance won the election securing 336 seats with 31.0% of votes.
The Indian anti-corruption movement has contributed in campaign, making corruption, a chef issue for the parties. Social media, playing an important role in political campaign has been a big platform for political parties. It was estimated that around 5 billion expenditure were made by the political parties in 2014 general elections. In this 21st century India, people has realized that social media can be used as weapon for effecting masses. Leaders have actively participated in social media from attracting masses to propagating issues. Another issues were lack of jobs, economic slowdown, security and terrorism, religions division and communalism and infrastructure. During campaign, Parties also used celebrity candidature from non-political sphere for attracting masses. For example Raj Babbar (INC), Smriti Irani (BJP), Javed Jafri (AAP), Kamaal Rashid Khan (SP), Ravi Kishan (INC), Jaya Parda (RLD), Manoj Tiwari (BJP), Paresh Rawal (BJP), Hema Malini (BJP) etc.
In this secular country, India, parties use communal move. BJP raise issues like Ram mandir and cow slaughtering, whereas on the other side AIMIM talking only about Muslim in India. Leaders make hate speech against each other and communalize the politics intentionally or unintentionally.
Psychology as an influencer in political campaign:
Political psychology helps to determine public perception of the candidate for which they work and how people are incited to vote for a candidate. People also spread negative perception about a candidate which is known as anti-campaigning. This contributes to make mind for a candidate or against a candidate. Communal politics contributes in negative campaigning and to be a cause of a riot. Sometimes an incident is created to spread negative image and to change the perception of people. Personality of a candidate contributes in campaign. This spreads a positive or negative image among the voters respectively. Psychology becomes a part of political campaign which results in making perception and to choose a candidate.
In conclusion, we can say that politics and psychology are two sciences. Both relates with our daily life. These practical sciences are contributing each other. Political campaign is a way used to come in power. In this world largest democratic country, political campaign holds an importance. Different political parties choose different ways. These ways varies according to region and state. Here, psychology helps in choosing the way and making a result.
Yash Nawaz, is an undergraduate student at Aligarh Muslim University from New Delhi.