Chapter 14

Politics and Government in Global Perspective

Chapter Outline

• Politics Power and Authority

• Political Systems in Global Perspective

• Perspectives on Power and Political Systems

• The U.S. Political System

Chapter Outline

• Government Bureaucracy

• The Military and Militarism

• Terrorism and War

• Politics and Government in the Future

Sharpening Your Focus

• What are the major political systems around the world?

• How does the center of power differ in the pluralist and the elite models of the U.S. power structure?

• How is government shaped by political parties and political attitudes?

Political Sociology

• Examines the nature and consequences of power within or between societies, as well as the social and political conflicts that lead to changes in the allocation of power.

Politics, Power and Authority

• Politics is the social institution through which power is acquired and exercised.

• Government has the legal and political authority to regulate relationships among members of a society and between the society and those outside its borders.

• The state possesses a legitimate monopoly over the use of force within its territory to achieve its goals.

Sharpening Your Focus

• Why are government bureaucracies so powerful?

• What is the place of democracy in the future?

Political Systems in Global Perspective

• Political institutions emerged when agrarian societies acquired surpluses and developed social inequality.

• When cities developed, the city-state became the center of political power.

• Nation-states emerged as countries acquired the ability to defend their borders.

Nation-states

• Approximately 190 nation-states currently exist throughout the world.

• Today, everyone is born, lives, and dies under the auspices of a nation-state

• Four types of political systems are found in nation-states: monarchy, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, and democracy.

Types of Political Systems

• A monarchy is a political system in which power resides in one person or family and is passed from generation to generation through lines of inheritance.

• Authoritarianism - A political system controlled by rulers who deny popular participation in government.

Types of Political Systems

• Totalitarianism - A political system in which the state seeks to regulate all aspects of people's lives.

• Democracy - A political system in which the people hold the ruling power directly or through elected representatives.

Tischler, 1993• social control

• establish societal goals

• Promote economic stability

• provide protection

Kendall, 2008

• maintain law & order

• plan & direct society

• meet social needs

• handle international relations

Tischler, 1993.(4th

Edition) Introduction to Sociology. The Harcourt Press. ISBN 0-03-076681-8

STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVEOF THE POLITICAL INSTITUTION

Recently, some analysts have suggested that the U.S political system is evolving into a democratic socialistic form of government. Along these same lines, the United States is seen to be assuming…” many of the characteristics of a welfare state (a state that uses extensive government action to provide support and services to its citizens” (Kendall, pg. 430). A consequence of this is that our country’s constitutional fabric pertaining to our inalienable rights, (i.e., referenced in the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution) is being unwoven. In other words, many of our constitutional rights and freedoms are being sacrificed along the way; related to how we become a member of and function within each of the five primary social institutions (i.e., marriage and family, economic institution, political system, education and religious institution).

Identify and discuss 2 constitutional related

principles, rights and/or freedoms related to each

of the 5 social institutions that either are being

undermined, are in the process of being

relinquished and/or have been virtually

discarded for the sake of promoting a stronger

U.S. political system; a government that is

being called upon to offer ever-increasingly

expansive services and financial support for its

growingly “needy” constituency.

A Balance of Rights

Classical republicanism refers to the idea that individuals

should put the needs of the community before self-

interest. In natural rights philosophy (modern liberalism),

the purpose of government is to protect individual rights.

The ideal government achieves and maintains a balance

between the two ideas. The key word here is balance,

there was no either/or intended when the framers wrote

the United States Constitution. It was suggested by one of

the speakers that we need to cultivate the capacity to hold

contradictory ideas simultaneously and that we cannot

become terrorized by dichotomies

basicsproject.org/constitutional_literacy/government/government.htm

“James Madison introduced 12 amendments to the

First Congress in 1789. Ten of these would go on

to become what we now consider to be the Bill of

Rights. One was never passed, while another

dealing with Congressional salaries was not

ratified until 1992, when it became the 27th

Amendment. Based on the Virginia Declaration of

Rights, the English Bill of Rights, the writings of

the Enlightenment, and the rights defined in the

Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights contains

rights that many today consider to be

fundamental to America.”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/our_government/the_constitution/

How Much Do You Know About the Media?

True or False?

• Most journalists identify themselves as Republicans.

False

• Forty-four percent of journalists identify

themselves as Democrats, 16.3 percent as

Republicans, and 34 percent as

independents.

Summary: Far from protecting man's rights, the

nation's highest Court has been instrumental in

multiple violations of rights over the last two

centuries. As long as the Supreme Court persists in

practicing the contradiction between inalienable

rights and the altruist-collectivist ethics, it is man's

rights that will lose out.

.

Article address:

http://www.CapMag.com/article.asp?ID=160

The Supreme Court's violation of rights can be traced all

the way back to the eighteenth century. In one of its very

first decisions, Calder v. Bull (1798), the court ruled that

"the right of property is conferred by society," "private

rights must yield to public exigencies," and "if the

owners should refuse voluntarily to accommodate the

public, they must be constrained, as far as the public

necessities require." The altruist-collectivist ethics is

clearly manifested in Calder v. Bull, which does not

view property rights as inalienable, but as concessions

from society, a profoundly collectivist notion.

.

.Two chilling rulings during that period demonstrated that even

the most explicit constitutional guarantees had become dead

letters in the eyes of the Court. The first one upheld the military

draft in the Selective Draft Law Cases of 1918. In response to the

claim that such power violated the Thirteenth Amendment's

prohibition of involuntary servitude, the Supreme Court ruled

that the exaction by the government from the citizen of the

performance of his "supreme and noble duty" of defending the

country in a war declared by "the great representative body of the

people" did not constitute servitude. This language clearly

reflects the Court's sentiment that altruist-collectivist ethics

override individual rights, which makes it proper for the

government to compel individuals to sacrifice their liberty and

their life if this is required to fulfill their duty to the collective

.

When the case reached the Supreme Court (1919), its

unanimous ruling was that in time of war "many things

that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to

its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as

men fight." Thus the protection of free speech fell victim

to the altruist-collectivist ethics, with the alleged guardians

of the Constitution ruling that the freedom of speech ought

to be brushed aside in the presence on an overriding social

goal

Principle of Representative Government in the U.S. ?

Pluralist Model

• Decisions are made on behalf of the people by leaders.

• Competition among leadership groups makes abuse of power difficult.

• Power is dispersed, and people influence policy by voting.

• Public policy reflects a balance among interest groups.

Purpose of a Political Party

• Develop and articulate policy positions.

• Educate voters about issues and simplify the choices for them.

• Recruit candidates, help them win office and hold them responsible for implementing the party’s positions.

Running for Office

• Running for political office takes large sums of money.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger, shown with his wife, Maria Shriver, contributed large sums to his campaign for governor of California and received large contributions because of his name recognition.

Special Interest Groups

• Advocates may run for public office and gain a wider voice in the political process.

• Former U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, a Cheyenne chief, is shown after participating in a ceremony for the National Museum of the American Indian.

Special Interest Groups

• Special interest groups are political coalitions made up of individuals or groups that share a specific interest they wish to protect or advance with the help of the political system.

Costs of Campaigning

• The cost of mounting a campaign for president of the United States has grown dramatically with each passing decade.

• Prior to celebrating President Bush’s second-term victory at the 2005 inaugural gala, his campaign raised more than $367 million.

Campaign Funding by Party

"Here are some vital statistics about attorneys and the legal system

in the United States."

Attorney Vital Statistics

There are over ONE MILLION lawyers in the United States today.

About forty thousand new lawyers graduate and begin to

practice law every year.

Annually, Americans spend more than 150 billion dollars on

legal fees.40% of all lawyers actually do notpractice law. Some of these are law-related (teaching law, serving as judges or arbitrators.)Others leave the law profession and engage in activities that have little to do with the legal system. http://www.usattorneylegalservices.com/attorney-vital-statistics.html

Ten percent of all lawyers practice for some level of

government

The U.S. Congress has long been dominated by lawyer-politicians. "From 1780 to 1930, two thirds of the senators and about half of the House of Representatives were lawyers; the percentage seems to have stayed fairly stable" (Friedman 1985: 647). . . . at the beginning of the 101st Congress in 1989, 184 members (42%) of the U.S. House of Representatives were lawyers (47% of the Democrats and 35 % of the Republicans). Sixty-three senators were lawyers, roughly equally distributed between the two parties (Ornstein, Mann, and Malbin 1990: 20-21, 26-27). At the beginning of the 102nd Congress in January, 1991, 244 of the 535 members of both houses (46%) claimed attorney as their profession

(Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report 1/12/91: 118).

http://polisci.wisc.edu/~kritzer/teaching/ls415/Miller1993CP.htm

The biggest problem with the large number of lawyers in

elective office today is that, disregarding everything else,

they increasingly control all branches of our government:

The Legislative, the Executive and the Judiciary. This in

contravention of what the founders of our nation were

trying to avoid when they divided our government into

three branches so as to provide “checks and balances” and a

“separation of powers”.

Though James Madison author of the U. S. Constitution

realized that this checking of each branch on the other made

for a far less efficient government, he realized, as he wrote

in Federalist 47, that the sacrifice was worth it to prevent

tyranny by a government “in the same hands”:

Today 46% of our government branches are in

the same hands of lawyers. Who, although as

lawyers constitute a very sizeable number, still

make up only ½% of our population.

Lawyers make up 38% of our Legislative

branch, 100% of our Judicial branch and 100%

of our Executive Branch

Irrespective of one's political party this is

untenable if one wishes to prevent government

"in the same hands". The same hands of

lawyers

Multiple professional and business benefits accrue to the lawyer who is elected to an office:

He obtains in effect free advertising for his practice by using campaignfunds to tout himself and at the same time by default—his practice.

He makes contacts with various special interests to whom the cost ofhis services as an occasional lawyer is peanuts compared to the benefitsthat those special interests can receive if he is in the legislature.

When he passes legislative bills which become our laws he can make them to such a degree of complexity that he is the only one who reallyunderstands the bills and therefore he would need to be hired to administer them. And in a more general way the fact that he is a lawyer will cause all laws to be written to a greater degree of complexity than necessary and as a result more lawyers will need to be hired to implementthem.

And in Texas a lawyer as a member of the legislature is allowed tosuspend the progress of any case while the legislature is in session. If a client wishes to delay a case in this way he must hire a lawyer in the legislature. Thus increasing the member’s value in the market.

. . .too many lawyers cause the law not to be made in

a commonsense way but in a legalistic way. Process

is worshiped over result because the lawyers get

paid more for the process than the result. What

could be more enjoyable to a lawyer than arguing

the law after making the law which to be argued—

as a legislator.

Because lawyers control all legal rulemaking an

increase in the number of lawyers does not cause a

reduction in their individual activity. It simply

increases their percentage take of the American

economy.

Conflict Perspectives: Elite Models

• Power in political systems is in the hands of a small group of elites and the masses are relatively powerless.

• Decisions are made by the elites, who agree on the basic values and goals of society.

• The needs and concerns of the masses are not given full consideration by the elite.

Elitist Model

• Decisions are made by a small group of elite people.

• Consensus exists on the basic values and goals of society.

• Power is concentrated at the top of a pyramid shaped social hierarchy.

• Public policy reflects the values of the elite.

Unhealthy LawsuitsBy INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, December 18, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Suit-happy attorneys have also helped weaken patient safety. To shield themselves, doctors often order unnecessary imaging tests that increase radiation exposure and can cause severe allergic reactions to contrast dye, and perform or arrange surgeries, such as Caesarean sections, when textbook care indicates they're not needed.

Some doctors, particularly specialists, have done just the opposite, by closing their practices or refusing to see high-risk patients. An annual physician study found that over the last five years, an average of 44% to 48% of Massachusetts doctors reported they're changing or limiting their practice due to fear of lawsuits.

The Massachusetts Medical Society surveyed 900 doctors in

eight specialties — including family, emergency and internal

medicine — and found the cost of practicing defensive

medicine was $1.4 billion a year in that state

Legal Reform: A physicians' group has found that the practice of defensive medicine wastes

more than a billion dollars a year in Massachusetts alone.

Trial lawyers should be ashamed of what they've done to health care.

Read

Nine of 10 doctors practice defensive medicine — ordering unneeded laboratory and diagnostic tests, referring patients to consultations they don't need, performing procedures that aren't called for, sending patients to hospitals without cause — to avoid being sued, not to benefit their clientele.Doctors are a favorite prey of trial lawyers, whose litigation against the profession has forced malpractice insurance to unaffordable heights in some cases, driven doctors out of their chosen vocation and sent medical care costs far higher than they should be.The trial bar has also effectively made it harder for seriously ill patients to be properly diagnosed and treated as doctors clog facilities with patients who are in need of neither.

alone

But in reality, the amount is higher, because some measures of defensive medicine were not included in the survey, the medical group says, "and the fact that less than half of the state's doctors were represented in the survey." The actual cost of defensive medicine, the group said, is "significantly higher" than its own estimate.Nationally, the cost is roughly $210 billion a year (likely due to costs being higher in some states because it is easier to sue in those states). That's close to 10% of total yearly health care spending in this country, a percentage that can't be easily dismissed as insignificant or a rounding error. We're confident there's no family or employer out there that wouldn't be happy to cut health care expenses by 10%.None of this is to say that physicians are perfect or that medical errors don't happen. Sometimes doctors miss the mark. But real negligence is rare. Physicians are human, practicing an imperfect profession that hasn't caught up to every malady and condition.Trial lawyers sometimes fail, as well. Their record, however, is worse than doctors', particularly in malpractice litigation.

The New England Journal of Medicine found in nearly 40% of all medical malpractice cases, no medical error was committed. In other words, in four in 10 cases, there was nothing to sue for.Similarly, some studies have found that as many as 80% of all medical litigation verdicts are wrong, unjustified by science.So that doctors can practice the healing arts without resorting to defensive medicine and setting in motion its ill effects, our civil justice system needs to be reformed in a way that discourages both abusive malpractice suits and absurdly high jury awards.

One solution would be to cap damages. Another would be to set up special medical courts, where health care experts, not a jury of truck drivers, accountants, teachers and salesmen settle injury disputes based on actual medical science.

Make no mistake: Sometimes patients need lawyers. Sometimes

doctors need them. But what we all need is a system that protects

both from the voracious appetites of a few attorneys who know no

bounds in their quest for riches, and make us all poorer and less

healthy as a result.

The Sixth Amendment assures the right to a speedy

trial by a jury of one's peers, to be informed of the

crimes with which they are charged, and to confront

the witnesses brought by the government. The

amendment also provides the accused the right to

compel testimony from witnesses, and to legal

representation.

The Eighth Amendment prohibits excessive bail,

excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishments.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are

created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with

certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty

and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights,

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just

powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever

any Form of Government becomes destructive of these

ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it,

and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on

such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to

them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and

Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that

Governments long established should not be changed for

light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience

hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while

evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing

the forms to which they are accustomed.

Voter Apathy

• 10% of the voting-age population participates at a level higher than voting.

• Over the past 40 years, less than half the voting-age population has voted in nonpresidential elections.

• In many other Western nations, the average turnout is 80 to 90% of all eligible voters.

Why Voters Don’t Vote

Conservative argument:

• People are satisfied with the status quo, are uninformed and lack an understanding of government processes.

Liberal argument:

• People feel alienated from politics due to corruption and influence peddling by special interests and large corporations.

The Federal Bureaucracy

• Massive government buildings filled with “faceless bureaucrats” is a negative image people have of the U.S. government.

Power and Authority

• Power is the ability of persons or groups to achieve their goals despite opposition from others.

• Authority is power that people accept as legitimate rather than coercive.

The Iron Triangle of Power

The Military And Militarism

• U.S. government expenditures for weapons and fighter jets such as the one shown here have contributed to the expansion of the military—industrial complex

Explanations for Militarism

1. The economy.

2. The role of the nation and its inclination toward coercion in response to perceived threats.

3. Patriarchy and the relationship between militarism and masculinity.