1878.Gamwell defines "politics" formally as "the activities of the state and the process by which these activities are decided or determined"...

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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...herefore, 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 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.).