ABSTRACT
A popular perception of politics is that it is a process that determines who gets what and when or who pays and who benefi ts. Viewed more abstractly, politics is a process by which a collective (a tribe, an organization, a people) allocates what it considers to be of value. The kinds of items or conditions that are valued include resources such as material objects, personal or public privilege, public symbols, access, power and participation. All human societies have procedures for deciding how to allocate these values. What distinguishes open and closed societies is the extent to which the political rules governing these decisions, and the breadth of political participation, are explicit and popularly agreed upon.
