Abstract Use of the term “politicize” and its variants has surged in the American lexicon over the past half-century. Typically, the term “politicize” carries a tone of condemnation. Yet it is unclear if politicizing is always bad. In this article, I give an account of what it means to politicize by first describing paradigmatic cases of politicizing in popular media, then I survey various definitions of politicizing and explain the concept. Politicizing typically occurs when an agent instrumentalizes some activity or institution for the sake of their partisan political agenda. To politicize is to use a nonpartisan good as a means to a partisan end.
Rich Eva (Wed,) studied this question.