ABSTRACT
Politics is one of the activities human beings perform socially, possessing features that make it a very special social activity – working them out and preventing politics from being merged with society and social activity. All-inclusive as it is in its abstractness, the relational definition is a good basis for understanding power, though not capable of closing in on what we strive to grasp in its specificity: political power. Political power, in combination with influence, operates mainly in two areas: it makes substantive decisions, allocating goods and recognising identities, and it determines which issues will be taken to public debate and decision making, which will be left out or postponed: this is the agenda-setting power in democracies scattered among government, media and other power centres such as trade unions and industrial associations. Entrusting politics to the institutional power structure and its officials therefore represents for all others an 'unburdening' or relief, which makes them free to pursue their own inclinations.
