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Gamwell defines "politics" formally as "the activities of the state and the process by which these activities are decided or determined"; and the "state" as "that association whose identifying purpose is to order or govern the pursuit of purposes in the community and . . . hereforetherefore, the one association in any society to which all individuals in the society must belong" (1984: 325). 

But this is, in effect, the narrow definition of "politics" as pertaining exclusively to state and government, alongside which I set mine my broader definition, according to which, following the paradigm of Gamwell's definition, I could say that politics refers to any activities having to do with creating, maintaining, and/or transforming social and cultural structures and the process by which these activities are decided or determined  (cf. The Point of Christology: 95 f.).