Politician

A politician is a person who participates in policy-making processes, usually holding a position in a political party or an elective position in government. Politicians make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles or duties that politicians perform vary depending on the level of government, whether local, state, or national. The ideological orientation that politicians adopt often stems from their previous experience, education, beliefs, the political parties they belong to. They try to shape public opinion accordingly.
Politicians sometimes face many challenges and mistakes that may affect their credibility and ability to persuade. These mistakes include political corruption resulting from their use and exploitation of power to achieve self interest. Ideally they prioritize the public interest over their own profit. Challenges include how to keep up with the development of social media and confronting opposition media, in addition to discrimination for or against them on the basis of gender or race.

Definitions

Standard dictionary definitions include a range of political activists under the definition of "politician." Merriam Webster Dictionary states:

Politician: 1: a person experienced in the art or science of government especially: one actively engaged in conducting the business of a government. 2a : a person engaged in party politics as a profession.

Oxford English Dictionary states:

Politician 2b: One keenly interested in politics; one who engages in party politics, or in political strife, or who makes politics his profession or business; also, in a sinister sense, one who lives by politics as a trade.

Identity

Politicians are people who participate in policy-making, in a multifaceted variety of positions of responsibility both domestically and internationally.
In ancient Greece, Pericles of Athens played an important role in politics, both in public discussions and in decision-making as depicted in Philip Foltz's 19th-century painting.
Over time the figure of the politician has evolved to include many forms and functions. In the United States, George Washington played a pivotal role as a politician because he served as the first President of the United States, shaping the official role and setting many precedents. Today, political offices take many forms, held by people called premiers, ministers, mayors, governors, senators, or presidents, each with its own duties.
Though popular discourse may equate politicians with "leaders", politicians may primarily conduct themselves in the political process without engaging in leading the class of politicians may include: representative delegates,
executive functionaries or administrators,
diligent bureaucratic cadres, and party hacks
submissively propping up a voting majority.
While government leaders are generally considered politicians,
not all politicians are subject to voters: autocratic and dictatorial regimes remain extant.
The identity of politicians is influenced by their social and work environments, by their ideology, and by any parties with which they may associate; furthermore, the development of means of communication and social media have increased public participation in policy-making, leading to a reformation of politicians' identities and increasing the complexity of political work.

Media and rhetoric

Politicians are influential people who use rhetoric to impact people as in speeches or campaign advertisements. They are especially known for using common themes, and media platforms that allow them to develop their political positions, developing communication between them and the people.
File:Kennedy Nixon Debate.jpg|thumb|Photo of the second of the four presidential debates held during the 1960 presidential election. This debate took place in Washington, D.C. at NBC's WRC-TV studios on October 7, 1960.
Politicians of necessity become expert users of the media. Politicians in the 19th century made heavy use of newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets, as well as posters to disseminate their messages to appeal to voters' emotions and beliefs in their campaigns. In the 20th century, the scope of media expanded out into radio and television, and a major change occurred as speech was now presented visually as well as verbally as evidenced by the Kennedy-Nixon debates, marking a new era where visual media became crucial to campaigns. The twenty-first century has provided wide and diverse media platforms represented by Facebook, and Twitter, which has now become X, Instagram, YouTube, and others. This development has made their rhetorical messages faster, shorter more efficient, and characterized by the speed of spread and interaction.
Politicians, who rarely meet voters in person, seek to use the media as a means of communicating with people, winning votes, and obtaining political roles. Some research confirms that the media increases the popularity of a politician, and indicates that negative news has a stronger effect on popularity than positive news.
Some research has suggested that politicians tend to use social media more than traditional media because their perception of the traditional media's influence as a public informant greatly affects their satisfaction with democratic processes. So they prefer to use social media and communicate directly with people in order to have greater control over their message and easier communication.
This continuous evolution in media has made politicians adapt their discourse to these diverse and evolving platforms for greater communication and effectiveness.

Salary

Higher salaries of politicians can improve governance and decrease political corruption. The list of heads of state and government salaries shows large differences in the salaries of politicians.

Careers and biographies

Mattozzi and Merlo argue that politicians typically follow two main career paths in modern democracies. The first is career politicians who remain in government until retirement. The second is political careerists, who have gained a reputation for their experience at various levels of government such as international, federal, state, and local governments, they often leave politics and start a new business venture using their political connections.
The personal histories of politicians have been frequently studied, as it is presumed that their experiences and characteristics shape their beliefs and behaviors. There are four pathways by which a politician's biography could influence their leadership style and abilities. First, a politician's biography may shape their core beliefs, which are essential to shaping their worldview. The second pathway is those personal experiences that influence a politician's skills and competence, and which determine where politicians focus their resources and attention as leaders. The third pathway refers to biographical characteristics that influence a politician's resource allocation and responses based on characteristics such as race or gender. The fourth pathway is how a politician's biography affects his public perception, which affects politicians' leadership style and their strategy for gaining people's respect.

Characteristics

Numerous scholars have studied the characteristics of politicians and in economic class to explain characteristics impact on politicians' effectiveness and electoral success, comparing politicians involves different dimensions such as level of government, political ideology, economic class, and comparing the more successful and less successful in terms of elections.
Demographic factors such as age, gender, education, income, and race/ethnicity, play a role in shaping shape voter behavior and political preferences
Also, educational background in politics also plays an important role in shaping the political awareness of politicians and plays a major role in increasing people's confidence in them.
Politicians were found to have on average a political bias compared to median voters in many countries.
In some countries politicians are banned from having multiple citizenships to avoid dual loyalty.

Challenges

In this century of advanced communications, politicians face challenges and difficulties while communicating with people through various social media platforms. The implicit importance of social media for politics stems from the virtual space these platforms have created for expressing ideas and spreading mutual messages without restrictions. Misinformation, rumors, and discrimination complicate their political behavior and communication with people.
Face-to-face contact with constituents is important to elected politicians. Face-to-face meetings force politicians to be directly aware of the issues that matter most to their constituents and to have a ready response for them. They pay attention to tone of voice, looking for unspoken priorities, hopes and anxieties. Politicians with good memories will ask whether such and such a problem is resolved satisfactorily, or how the children are doing. Some politicians have the knack to remember thousands of names and faces. Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were renowned for their memories.
Political polarization created by the media plays a role in influencing politicians' behavior and communications, which reinforces negative campaigns. They also play a role in legislative gridlock and negatively impact public perception, which negatively impacts politicians' interests.
Additionally, research highlighted that politicians, especially populist politicians, may create a challenge for themselves by increasingly accusing the media of spreading misinformation or "fake news." Such accusations can undermine the credibility of media platforms, even though trust in the accused politicians remains largely unaffected. They will therefore have a negative impact on the credibility of media platforms, and this distrust may extend to the media institutions as a whole that politicians use to communicate with people.
Regarding the challenges of gender dynamics, particularly the role of women in politics, some recent research focuses on the life path of women in the political field and the challenges surrounding them. For example, there are studies on the "supermader" model in politics in Latin America, which illustrate the difficulties women face and how to balance their home and work and the distinction between women and men that negatively affects their acceptance in political work.