Introduction to Sociology/Politics and Government

Fork of and with no credit to Wikipedia, and no work to fix this to work as a textbook module. I will divert the links from to link to Wikipedia instead. --Kernigh 18:21, 1 January 2006 (UTC) Politics is the process by which decisions are made for a given society. The method of making decisions for groups varies, but the act of decision making is the key component that characterises politics. Although it is generally applied to s, politics is also observed in all human group interactions, including , , and religious institutions. political science is the study of political behavior and examines the acquisition and application of , i.e. the ability to impose one's will on another. One theorist, , has defined politics as "who gets what, when, and how." Another definition of 'politics' is: "how power is distributed within a group or system". A natural state In , published his most famous work, Leviathan, in which he proposed a model of early human development to justify the creation of human associations. Hobbes described an ideal wherein every person had equal right to every resource in nature and was free to use any means to acquire those resources. Noting that such an arrangement created a “war of all against all” ( ). Further, he noted that men would enter into a and would give up absolute rights for certain protections. While it appears that social cooperation and dominance hierarchies predate human societies, Hobbes’s model illustrates a rationale for the creation of (polities). Early history describes the transformation of human society that took place around 6000 BCE as an urban revolution. Among the features of this new type of civilization were the institutionalization of social stratification, non-agricultural specialised crafts (including priests and lawyers), taxation, and writing. All of which require densely populated settlements - cities. The word "Politics" is derived from the Greek word for city-state, "". Corporate, religious, academic and every other polity, especially those constrained by limited resources, contain dominance hierarchy and therefore politics. Politics is most often studied in relation to the administration of governments. The oldest form of government was tribal organization. Rule by elders was supplanted by , and a system of as an arrangement where a single family dominated the political affairs of a community. Monarchies have existed in one form or another for the past 5000 years of human history. Definitions Power is the ability to impose one's will on another. It implies a capacity for force, i.e violence. is the power to enforce laws, to exact obedience, to command, to determine, or to judge. is an attribute of government gained through the acquisition and application of power in accordance with recognized or accepted standards or principles. A is the body that has the authority to make and enforce rules or laws. Political power ’ maxim,"Reward your friends and punish your enemies," hints at two of the five types of power recognized by social psychologists: incentive power (the power to reward) and coercive power (the power to punish). Arguably the other three grow out of these two. Legitimate power, the power of the policeman or the referee, is the power given to an individual by a recognized authority to enforce standards of behavior. Legitimate power is similar to coercive power in that unacceptable behavior is punished by fine or penalty. Referent power is bestowed upon individuals by virtue of accomplishment or attitude. Fulfillment of the desire to feel similar to a celebrity or a hero is the reward for obedience. Expert power springs from education or experience. Following the lead of an experienced coach is often rewarded with success. Expert power is conditional to the circumstances. A brain surgeon is no help when your pipes are leaking. Authority and legitimacy identified three sources of legitimacy for authority known as (). He proposed three reasons why people followed the orders of those who gave them: Traditional Traditional authorities receive loyalty because they continue and support the preservation of existing values, the status quo. Traditional authority has the longest history. Patriarchal (and more rarely Matriarchal) societies gave rise to hereditary monarchies where authority was given to descendants of previous leaders. Followers submit to this authority because "we've always done it that way." Examples of traditional authoritarians include kings and queens. Charismatic Charismatic authority grows out of the personal charm or the strength of an individual personality (see for the most extreme version). Charismatic regimes are often short lived, seldom outliving the charismatic figure that leads them. Examples include , , and Mao. Charismatic authority is also frequently seen as the catalyzing force of social movements, such as in Jesus Christ, Mohandas Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, Jr. Weber was interested in what happens to the authority embodied in these charismatic leaders once they died. He argued that the authority structure would be transmitted to one of the other two types. One possibility is that an heir of some kind (offspring or an influential follower) would take over, leading towards a form of traditional authority. Or, the charisma of the leader would be rationalized and placed into a bureaucratic or rule-oriented power authority structure (i.e. legal-rational authority). Legal-rational Legal-Rational authorities receive their ability to compel behavior by virtue of the office that they hold. It is the authority that demands obedience to the office rather than the office holder. Modern democracies are examples of legal-rational regimes. See also A government is the body that has the power to make and enforce laws within an or group. In its broadest sense, "to govern" means to administer or supervise, whether over an area of land, a set group of people, or a collection of assets. The word government is derived the Greek Κυβερνήτης (kubernites), which means "steersman", "governor", "pilot" or "rudder". Definitions One approach is to define government as the dominant(on top) better decision-making arm of the , and define the latter on the basis of the control it has over and the use of force within its territory. Specifically, the state (and by extension the government) has been considered by some to be the entity that holds a within a territory. This view has been taken by the political economist and subsequent political philosophers. The exact meaning of it depends on what is understood by “legitimate”. If we use the term in an ethical sense, then this definition would suggest that an organisation might be considered a state by its supporters but not by its detractors. An alternative definition is to take "legitimate" violence to be simply that which has active or tacit acceptance by the vast majority of the population. In this view, the presence of insurrection or against an entity would jeopardise its claim to be a state, provided the insurrection enjoyed significant popular support. Similarly, an entity that shared military or power with independent militias and bandits could be considered to have a monopoly on “legitimate” violence but to be failing to enforce it, reducing its claim to statehood. In practice, such situations are often described as "s". Government can also be defined as the political means of creating and enforcing s; typically via a bureaucratic . Under this definition, a purely despotic organization which controls a territory without defining laws would not be considered a government. Another alternative is to define a government as an organisation that attempts to maintain control of a , where "control" involves activities such as collecting es, controlling entry and exit to the state, preventing encroachment of territory by neighbouring states and preventing the establishment of alternative governments within the country. In , the word "Government" can also be used to refer only to the executive branch, in this context being a synonym for the word "administration" in (e.g. the Blair Government, the Bush Administration). In countries using the , the Government (or party in Government) will also usually control the . The French use of the word gouvernement covers both meanings, whereas Canadian French generally uses it to mean the executive branch. The German word Regierung refers only to government as the executive branch; the wider meaning of the word, government as a system, can be translated as Staatsgewalt. Forms of government Various forms of government have been implemented. A government in a developed state is likely to have various sub-organisations known as offices, departments, or agencies, which are headed by politically appointed officials, often called ministers or secretaries. Ministers may in theory act as advisors to the , but in practice have a certain amount of direct power in specific areas. In most modern democracies, the elected has the power to dismiss the government, but in those states that have a separate and , the generally has great latitude in appointing a new one. Theories There are a wide range of theories about the reasons for establishing governments. The four major ones are briefly described below. Note that they do not always fully oppose each other - it is possible for a person to subscribe to a combination of ideas from two or more of these theories. Greed and oppression Many political philosophies that are opposed to the existence of a government (such as , and to a lesser extent ), as well as others, emphasize the historical roots of governments - the fact that governments, along with , originated from the authority of warlords and petty despots who took, by force, certain patches of land as their own (and began exercising authority over the people living on that land). Thus, it is argued that governments exist to enforce the will of the strong and oppress the weak. Order and tradition The various forms of , by contrast, generally see the government as a positive force that brings order out of chaos, establishes laws to end the "war of all against all", encourages moral while punishing , and respects . Sometimes, in this view, the government is seen as something ordained by a higher power, as in the , which human beings have a duty to obey. Natural rights are the basis for the theory of government shared by most branches of (including ). In this view, human beings are born with certain natural rights, and governments are established strictly for the purpose of protecting those rights. What the natural rights actually are is a matter of dispute among liberals; indeed, each branch of liberalism has its own set of rights that it considers to be natural, and these rights are sometimes mutually exclusive with the rights supported by other liberals. Social contract One of the most influential theories of government in the past two hundred years has been the , on which modern and most forms of are founded. The social contract theory holds that governments are created by the people in order to provide for collective needs (such as safety from crime) that cannot be properly satisfied using purely individual means. Governments thus exist for the purpose of serving the needs and wishes of the people, and their relationship with the people is clearly stipulated in a "social contract" (a and a set of laws) which both the government and the people must abide by. If a majority is unhappy, it may change the social contract. If a minority is unhappy, it may persuade the majority to change the contract, or it may opt out of it by emigration or secession. Operations Governments concern themselves with regulating and administering many areas of human activity, such as , , , , and . Enforcement of power Governments use a variety of methods to maintain the established order, such as and , (particularly under , see also ), making agreements with other states, and maintaining support within the state. Typical methods of maintaining support and legitimacy include providing the for , , , , etc., claiming support from deities, providing benefits to , holding s for important posts within the state, limiting the power of the state through s and s (see also ) and appealing to . Different political ideologies hold different ideas on what the government should or should not do. Territory The modern standard unit of is a . In addition to the meaning used above, the word can refer either to a government or to its territory. Within a territory, subnational entities may have s which do not have the full power of a national government (for example, they will generally lack the authority to declare war or carry out diplomatic negotiations). Scale of government The scale to which government should exist and operate in the world is a matter of debate. Government spending in varies considerally but generally makes up between about 30% and 70% of their GDP. Politics is the study of power relations. Power is all pervasive. All of us organise our relations with others through the manipulation of power. Government is a form of organising the power relations in a society. In the ancient societies we had clan groups, caste groups, elders, village council, etc. to regulate the relationships that exist in a society. In the modern society, there emerged a new form of regulating the relationship called government.