Politics and Government

Power

• Government–A formal organization that directs the political life of a society

• Governments demand compliance from the population.

– Weber: Most governments don’t openly threaten their people.

• Every government tries to make itself seem legitimate.

The ability to achieve desired ends despite resistance from others

Authority

• Traditional–Power legitimized through respect for long established cultural patterns

• Rational-legal–Power legitimized by legally enacted rules and regulations

Power that people perceive as legitimate rather than coercive.

Authority

• Charismatic–Power legitimized through extraordinary personal abilities that inspire devotion and obedience– Routinization of charisma–The

transformation of charismatic authority into some combination of traditional and bureaucratic authority

Power that people perceive as legitimate rather than coercive.

Monarchy

• Absolute monarchy– Rulers claiming power based on divine right– Modern examples: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,

Bahrain

• Constitutional monarchy– Symbolic heads of state– Political principles rule– Elected official actually rules– Modern examples: Great Britain, Spain,

Denmark

A political system in which a single family rules from generation to generation

Democracy

• Representative democracy–Authority in hands of elected leaders, accountable to the people

• The US isn’t truly democratic .– Extensive use of unelected bureaucratic officials– Wealthy have more political clout than the

impoverished.• Political economy

– The interplay of politics and economics– Capitalist societies claim freedom while socialist

societies claim security.

A political system that gives power to the people as a whole

Global Map 17.1 Political Freedom in Global Perspective

Other Political Systems• Authoritarianism–A political system that

denies popular participation in government– Authoritarian government is indifferent to

people’s needs.– Examples: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Ethiopia

• Totalitarianism–A highly centralized political system that extensively regulates people’s lives– Seeks to bend people to the will of the

government– Vietnam, North Korea

Figure 17.1 The Size of Government, 2005

The Rise of the Welfare State

• Individualism• Welfare state–Government agencies and

programs that provide benefits to the population

• One in six US workers is a government employee.

• The US welfare state is still smaller than those of many other high-income nations.

The Political Spectrum

• Ranges from extremely liberal on the left to extremely conservative on the right

• Economic issues• Social issues• Class, race, and gender• Party identification

Figure 17.2 Left-Right Political Identification of College Students, 1970-2006Student attitudes moved to the right after 1970 and shifted left in the late 1990s. College women tend to be more liberal than college men.Sources: Astin et al. (2002), Sax et al. (2003), and Pryor et al. (2006)

• Special-interest groups – Strong in nations where political parties tend to

be weak– Employ lobbyists to work on their behalf

• Political action committee (PAC)–An organization formed by a special-interest group, independent of political parties, to raise and spend money in support of political goals

Special-Interest GroupsPeople organized to address some economic or social

issue

Voter Apathy• Americans are less likely to vote today than a

century ago.– Only half of all registered voters participated in the

2000 presidential election. Participation rose to 60% in 2004.

– Women slightly more likely than men to vote– Over 65 much more likely to vote than college-age– Non-Hispanic whites more likely to vote than

African Americans– Hispanics least likely to vote– People with a bigger stake in US society are more

likely to vote

Voter Apathy• Conservatives: Apathy is political

indifference.

• Liberals: Apathy is alienation.

National Map 17.1 The Presidential Election, 2004: Popular Vote by CountyGeorge W. Bush won the 2004 presidential election with 51 percent of the total popular vote, but he received a majority in about 80 percent of the nation’s counties. John Kerry, who gained 48 percent of the popular vote, did well in more densely populated urban areas. What social differences do you think distinguish the areas that voted Republican and Democratic? Why are rural areas mostly Republican and urban areas mostly Democratic?Source: Copyright (c) by The New York Times. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Theoretical Analysis of Power in Society

• Pluralist model–An analysis of politics that sees power as spread among many competing interest groups

• Power-elite model–An analysis of politics that sees power as concentrated among the rich

• Marxist political-economy model–An analysis that explains politics in terms of the operation of a society’s economic system

Sociology, 12th Edition by John MacionisCopyright 2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Applying Theory Politics

Sociology, 12th Edition by John MacionisCopyright 2008 Prentice Hall, a division of Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Political Revolution

Political revolutions have common traits:• Rising expectations

– Tend to happen when quality of life is improving

• Unresponsive government– Government unwilling or unable to reform

• Radical leadership by intellectuals– Thomas Hobbes: Intellectuals provide the

justification for revolution.• Establishing new legitimacy

– Guarding against the counterrevolution

The overthrow of one political system in order to establish another

Terrorism

Characteristics:1. Define violence as a legitimate political

tactic; bypasses established channels of negotiation

2. Used by governments as well as individuals

3. Democratic countries are especially vulnerable to terrorism because of broad civil liberties.

4. One person’s terrorist is another's freedom fighter.

Acts of violence or the threat of violence used as a political strategy by an individual or a group

War and PeaceWright’s five factors that promote war:• Perceived threats

– Threats to people and territory• Social problems

– Internal problems and frustration• Political objectives

– Show of force and protecting one’s own property

• Moral objectives– Rallying people around morality

• Absence of alternatives– Limited options

Figure 17.3 Deaths of Americans in Eleven U.S. WarsAlmost half of all U.S. deaths in war occurred during the Civil War (1861-65).Sources: Compiled from various sources by Maris A. Vinovskis (1989) and the author.

War and Peace

• Social class and the military– "America's military seems to resemble the

makeup of a two-year commuter or trade school outside Birmingham or Biloxi far more than that of a ghetto or barrio or four-year university in Boston."

• Is terrorism a new kind of war?– Conventional warfare is symmetrical.– Terrorism is asymmetrical.

War and Peace• The costs and causes of militarism

– Military-industrial complex–The close association of the federal government, the military, and the defense industry

– Regional conflict as a reason for continuing militarism

• Nuclear weapons– Nuclear proliferation–The acquisition

of nuclear weapons technology by more and more nations

War and Peace

• Mass media and war– The power of the mass media to

provide selective information to a worldwide audience means that television and other media are almost as important to the outcome of a conflict as the military that is doing the actual fighting.

Pursuing Peace• Deterrence

– Balance of power between societies

• High-technology defense– Strategic defense initiative

• Diplomacy and disarmament– Keep talking about reducing arms

• Resolving underlying conflict– Increase spending on promoting peace rather

than building up military

Controversy and Debate Democracy in Countries with and without Islamic-Majority PopulationsToday, democratic government is much less common in countries with Islamic-majority populations. Fifty years ago, the same was true of countries with Catholic-majority populations.Source: Karatnycky (2002).