Policy and politics

Dear Teachers,

Is there a clear difference bettween POLICY & POLITICS ?

In the two examples belwo which is the correct one

- Policy is a dirty game
- Politics is a dirty game


Thanks in advance

[DavyBCN]

Originally Posted by hanygeorge38

Dear Teachers,
Is there a clear difference bettween POLICY & POLITICS ?
In the two examples belwo which is the correct one
- Policy is a dirty game
- Politics is a dirty game
Thanks in advance

The correct one is the second. It is a well-known saying. There is a great difference between politics and policy. To define politics is not easy because it involves so many things - different views on how the world should be; different systems of government; different philosophies on almost anything to do with the relationships between peoples, societies, governments and countries.

Policy is more specific. Political parties have policies about different aspects of life - health policies, economic policies, etc. Maybe you can think of policies as views and programmes on a specific subject. In an election the political parties will explain their policies and try to get people to vote for them because they have the best policies.

Both words can, of course, be used in other contexts - office politics (the relationships between people at work - sometimes in a negative sense) and recruitment policies - the standards by which a company decides to employ new personnel.