Politics

There are three distinct meanings of the word "politics."

1. The process by which groups of people make decisions.
2. The study of the processes, conventions, power structures, rules, laws, ideologies, and schema involved in the making of decisions.
3. The interactions between people involved in the process of making decisions.
   

The difference between the first and third definition is nice, to the point that I can't be sure there really is a distinction.

I dislike "office politics" and I dislike the personality-based gossiping that passes for political commentary in many newspapers (ooh, get me! - but I actually think commentators should concentrate on policy, process, and personality in that order of importance rather than the other way round).

I am fascinated by ideology. I haven't really made any firm ideological political commitments yet. In the past I've tried to define what my political beliefs are, but I've decided to suspend this definition for the time being to concentrate on policy and problem solving.