Conclusion

This course was dedicated to exploring the questions of what politics is and why it’s important. You began to work through these questions by studying a list reflecting some of the more extraordinary political events of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. You also reflected on the more ordinary side of politics and explored the implications of politics for our day-to-day lives.

In Section 2 of the course you were introduced to various definitions of politics and to the idea that politics is an essentially contested concept.

Finally, you listened to audio interviews with four differently positioned individuals to get their perspectives on what politics is and why it is important, and on what they considered to be the most significant political events of the twenty-first century.