ADVERTISEMENTS:
Owing to the very nature of politics the calculation of the cost of ‘political technology would always be tentative.
There are four components of calculating the cost of making and applying a political technology (PT):
(i) Sources,
(ii) Handling Style,
(iii) Stake or Investment, and
(iv) Outcome.
i. Sources:
Sources make up the ground on which political fight is carried is on. One is big or small in terms of one’s storehouse of sources. But they are meaningless unless one makes use of them. Sources broadly are inputs of politics in possession or control of a political leader.
These are of three types:
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(a) Personal,
(b) Formal, and,
(c) Non-formal.
Personal resources relate to the personal control of an individual political technology. They are material and political. Material resources include building, money, income, physique, stamina etc. Political resources include the number of followers, their organisation deference to him in areas that can be wide or narrow. It can again be positive when his directives are carried out, and negative when the same followers or some of them stand against him. Formal resources are available as a result of control over the state machinery.
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ADVERTISEMENTS:
Their abundance depends upon nature, size and form of the state. All political leaders contrive for having control over the state machinery. Non-formal resources are accumulated beyond and besides the state, i.e., caste, community, relations, voluntary organisations and so on. It may include many other factors of power accretion and its exercise.
Rest of the three components are used in actual political fight.
ii. Handling Style:
Sometimes it means a lot when a political technology is used abruptly, demonstratively or peacefully. Each type of handling brings in specific response from the concerned people.
iii. Stake or Investment:
Investment is putting the resources or a part thereof in winning over the game of politics. One may fight with totality of his resources. Spending of sources appears in the form of actual action. They are used while in confrontation with or facing opposition from the adversaries. Money, manpower, reputation, time, position etc. are put to stake. In this direction, investment has to be deducted from sources. Besides this venture, there can be wastage, loss, routine expenditure and cheating.
iv. Outcome:
Outcome or result is the output of the whole political venture. It may be satisfactory or unsatisfactory, adequate or inadequate or desirable or undesirable. In case, it is not satisfactory, it may have to be repeated or more resources have to be spent over the whole venture.