This course provides a general introduction to politics, focusing on the key concept of power as a way of analysing the context in which politics takes place: how competing political parties seek to acquire power, how political leaders use and abuse it, how it affects relations between states, and how the executive, in using power, may be constrained by political opposition and institutions such as legislatures. Through lectures, readings, discussions with politicians and the use of film, discussion groups and an on-line chat room, this course seeks to provide students with a conceptual map which will enable them to analyse the many different ways in which politics and power affect our lives.