Lecture Outline
I. The Nature of Politics
Many people view politics
with cynicism and distrust. Media reports of the scandalous private lives of
public officials and the occasional abuse of authority no doubt feed such
derisive opinions. While the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, resulted
in a dramatic shift of public opinion toward the government, this shift proved
short-lived, and public trust in government has subsequently declined. The root
of such widespread cynicism might lie in the inability to distinguish between
politics and government.
A. Politics and Power
Harold Laswell’s classic
definition of politics posits three questions: “Who gets what, when, and how?”
Another popular definition of politics is the authoritative allocation of
values. Thus politics is concerned with the authoritative decision-making
process that defines the goals of a society, resolves societal conflicts, and
determines who will receive the valued things of a society and who will not.
Government is both the forum within which such issues are debated and the
organization used to enforce the final decision. The link is clear, but it is
important to understand that politics and government are not the same thing.
The quintessential element
in politics is power. Politics is all about power. So what exactly is power,
and why is it so important? Like most concepts, power is subject to a
number of interpretations. Essentially, power is the capacity to affect the
conduct of others.
B. The Bases of
Political Power
Legitimacy is the belief
that certain principles or rules are right and proper. According to German
sociologist Max Weber, there are three sources of legitimacy: tradition,
charisma, and legality. Traditional authority is based on historical custom or
loyalty to established patterns of social behavior. Political parties might be
said to exercise traditional authority. Charismatic authority is based on the
presumed special and extraordinary powers or qualities of some individual.
Martin Luther King, Jr. exercised tremendous charismatic authority. Legal
authority is legitimacy based in law, such as the Constitution.
C. Politics and Government
Government is not the same
thing as politics. Rather, government is the set of institutions and processes
by which decisions are made and enforced on all members of a society. People
may be involved in politics without being part of the government, such as members
of labor unions and interest groups.
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