Les Intraduisibles: German-English
German-EnglishPolitik
If for German it is a problem that the term "Politik" doesn't distinguish between politics, policy, and polity - then why isn't there a reversed problem for English not to have a word encompassing these three dimensions in one term? Or is there? In German, political science is the study of "Politik" in all three dimensions ("Politikwissenschaft"); is political science in English correctly the "study of politics"? Doesn't this unduly exclude or at least downplay the role of policy and polity? After all, isn't it somehow suspicious that English takes refuge in an adjective - political - to denote the subject this discipline is about... (see also entry for "Politologie")
Hoffmann Bert 12/1/2005
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