POLITICS, ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY

Economics is the study of how mankind assures its material sufficiency, of how society arrange for their material provisioning.

Economic problems arise because the wants of most societies exceed the gifts of nature, giving rise to the general condition of scarcity.

In order to overcome the problem of scarcity society creates economic institutions (the economy)

The economy is the major social institution by which a society produces, distributes, and consumes goods and services.

• Three types of solution to the organization of the economic system.

• Tradition. It solves the economic problems of production and distribution by enforcing a continuity of tasks and rewards through social institutions such as caste system or system of feudal obligation.

• These institutions are based on religious justification, force of custom and habit.

• Typically the economic solution imposed by tradition is a static one , in which little change occurs over long period of time.

• The market system is a complex mode of organizing society to which order and efficiency emerge “spontaneously” from a seemingly uncontrolled society.

• Command solves the economic problem by imposing allocations of effort or reward by governing authority. Command can be a means for achieving rapid and far-reaching economic change. It can take an extreme totalitarian or a mild democratic form.

• Politics is the major social institution by which a society distributes power and organizes decision-making.

• Coercion is the basis of social power.

• Coercion can be transformed into legitimate authority• (People believe and obey the rulers not because of fear but

because they believe that their rule is justified)

• The main sources of legitimacy: tradition, rationally enacted rules and personal charisma of the leader. (Max Weber)

• Traditional authority is common to preindustrial societies; industrialized societies legitimize power mostly through law and rules;

• Charismatic authority, which arises in every society, sustains itself through routinization into traditional or rational-legal authority.

• Monarchy is based on traditional authority and is common form in preindustrial societies.

• In industrial societies monarchies are transformed into constitutional monarchies.

• In modern industrial societies we have undemocratic and democratic political regimes.

Non-democratic regimes:• Authoritarian a form of government in which the rulers tolerate

little or no opposition, and generally cannot be removed from office by legal means.

• Totalitarianism is also an authoritarian form of government in which the rulers recognize no limits to their authority and are willing to regulate virtually any aspect of social life.

• Totalitarianism are often “revolutionary” regimes based on the idea of fundamental social change. Communist or Nazy revolutions.

• It is a modern phenomena in part because it relies on modern techniques as mass indoctrination and sophisticated surveillance methods.

• Democracy recognizes that ultimate authority belongs to the people.

• Direct/representative democracy• Constitutional/ popular democracy

• Prerequisites for democracy• 1. Advanced economic development• 2. Restraints on government power• 3. Absence of major cleavages• 4. Tolerance of dissent• 5. Access to information.• 6. Diffusion of power

• Political and economic sytems

• Traditional political systems are correlated with traditional economic systems.

• Command system and authoritarian or totalitarian government• (is it possible to have a command economic system and a

democratic political regimes ?)• Market system as necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for

the democratic regime (the question of China’s future)

• Ownership and democracy• Marxist interpretation: private ownership is an obstacle for

democracy• Liberal interpretation: private ownership is a prerequisite for

democracy.

• Command economy based on private ownership: Nazy dictatorship

• Command economy based on state (public) ownership and extinction of private ownership: communist dictatorship.

• There are examples of market economies combines with political dictatorship: (Chile)

• All stable democracies are market economies.• No examples of command economies that are democratic.

• In technological simple societies, the economy is simply part of family life.

• Agrarian societies show some productive specialization.• Industrialization rapidly expands the economy through greater

specialization and new energy sources that power machines in large factories.

• The postindustrial economy is characterized by a shift from producing goods to services.

• Industrial revolution propelled industrial economy, information revolution is advancing the postindustrial economy.