The Boundaries of the Political: State, Society, and the International Community

We have seen that politics is presaged on differences that human beings have, and how these differences, in interests and values, can be managed in a world where scarcity is inevitable. However, this only takes us so far in a definitional sense, because it does not touch upon boundary problems. Much of the definitional controversy surrounding politics relates to these boundary problems. Where does politics begin and end? For Leftwich, this is the 'single most important factor involved in influencing the way people implicitly or explicitly conceive of polities'.