Political conflict is a “war” for power. It always implies the presence of a clash of several parties. In this case, the cause of the confrontation is always power relations. In such a conflict, there is always a real struggle, certain actions that the rivals direct against each other. However, this is not capture or destruction, because such funds are used only unilaterally. And this does not correspond to the political conflict at all.
You can try to explain this concept in simple language. Then a political conflict is a confrontation of some supporters of certain views with others for a "place in the sun." Where the "sun" is power, which gives the right to manage resources, make universally significant decisions, and defend some kind of personal interests. Political conflict always has in its basis a specific object (status, state power and taking it into their own hands). Its reasons can also be all kinds of values or symbols, the structure of institutions of power.
Kinds
Types of political conflicts are presented in three versions. The first is the infringement of some interests. It is characteristic of economically developed, sustainable countries. The struggle can be fought over the size of taxes or the amount of social security, in other words, there is a “sharing” of profit in the economy. In such conflicts, there are always several compromises. This makes them easy to adjust.
The second option is when some moral value lies at the heart of the conflict , be it freedom, equality. This political struggle is most often affected by unstable, still developing states. Settlement of value conflicts is almost impossible.
Finally, another type is the conflict of identification or identification. It occurs when a person considers himself a subject in relation to some group, linguistic, ethnic, religious, and not in relation to society or the state as a whole. Such conflicts are common to multiracial, multilingual countries.
Members
Depending on who the participants are, a political conflict happens:
- interstate;
- regional;
- local.
There are also disagreements within the state system. Then they distinguish: positional conflicts or, as they are also called, horizontal conflicts, whose participants are organizations that are in power in this system, but differ in the hierarchy of their posts. For example, some institutions of federal power.
The second type of internal political conflict is opposition. Their participants are:
- on the one hand, an elite of people endowed with power;
- on the other hand, a subservient “not elite” opposing the policies of people in power.
Such a political conflict is resolved by a change of political power.
Functions
Political conflicts have both negative and positive functions. Among the good ones, one can note, first of all, the opportunity to stabilize the situation and, at the same time, make it clear to the authorities and society that there is such a problem that it is time to start doing something to solve it and take control of everything that happens. The conflict is resolved sooner or later, and society is being updated, values are reassessed, and new structures are emerging. But the negative function can be called the fact that the political struggle causes war, loss of life, the destruction of material values, the complication of international relations, violence and the establishment of a military dictatorship.
Political conflicts have been, are and will be as long as man exists. Of course, on the one hand, this is a struggle against the consequences arising from it. But on the other hand, conflict is a reluctance to live in the old way and the desire for something new and better. So such a disagreement is a kind of engine of progress, and our society needs them like water or air!