POLITICS

POWER
1. The political institution is the social structure concerned with the use and distribution of
power within a society.

2. Power gives direction to human affairs; it channels people’s actions along one course
rather than another so that collective goals can be achieved.

3. Power refers to the ability of individuals and groups to realize their will in human affairs
even if it involves the resistance of others.

4. Power brings about change in people- in attitude, behavior, motivation, or direction-

that would not have occurred in its absence.

5. Those individuals and groups who control critical social resources- rewards,
punishments, and persuasive communications- are able to influece, even dictate, the way
social life is ordered.

6. In sum, power affects the ability of people to make the world work on their behalf.

STATE
1. The state is a social organization that execises within a given territory an effective
monopoly in the use of physical coercion.

2. The state rests on force, power whose basis is the threat or application of punishment.

3. Even though force is ultimately the basis of the state, it is only in unusal situations that
societal power actually takes this form.

4. Any group that can secure sufficient power may overthrow the legally constituted
government and establish itself as the ruling group.

5. Bureaucracy as a hurdle: Modern bureaucracy has turned from an instrument of power

to a master of power in its own right.
 6. Politicians have repeatedly decried their inability to translate political programs into
day-to-day policies because of entrenched bureaucracies that operate in terms of their
own agendas.

AUTHORITY
1. Honor, normally a prized possession, is denied to those who rule by force alone.

2. Power that people view as legitimate and power they define as illegitimate. Legitimate
power is authority. In contrast, coercion is illegitimate power.

3. When individuals possess authority, they have a recognized and established right to
determine policies, pronounce judgments, and settle controversies- to act as leaders.

4. Traditional Authority: power is legitimated by the sanctity of age-old customs. People

obey their rulers because this is the way things have always been done. A good deal of
moral force stands behind traditional authority.

5. Legal Rational Authority: Power is legitimated by explicit rules and rational procedures
that define the rights and duties of the occupants of given positions. Under this
arrangement, officials claim obedience on grounds that their commands fall within the
impersonal, formally defined scope of their office.

6. Charismatic Authority: Power is legitimated by the extraordinary superhuman or

supernatural attributes that people impute to a leader.

7. Founders of world religions, prophets, military victors, and political heroes commonly
derive their authority from charisma (meaning literally “gift of grace”

8. Miracles, revelations, exceptional feats, and baffling successes are their trade marks.
They are the persons who dot the pages of history.

GOVERNMENT
1. Those individuals and groups who control the state apparatus and direct state power.

2. These individuals and groups formulate the rules and policies that are authoritative,
binding, and pervasive throughout a society.

3. The decisions they make profoundly affect the everyday lives of a nation’s citizenry, and
very often the citizenry of other nations as well.
 4. Policies relating to the economy, military, expenditures, issues of war and peace, drug
trafficking, education, health care, social welfare and environmental issues leave no
individual untouched by their consequences and ramifications.

DEMOCRACY
1. Political system in which the powers of government derive from the consent of the
governed.

2. The populace has a voice in decision making by virtue of its right to choose among
contenders for political office.

3. Only in rare cases, such as the New England town meeting of colonial times, do we find
direct democracy, face-to-face participation and decision making among the citizenry.

4. Rather, most democratic nations are characterized by representative democracy-

officials are held accountable to the public through periodic elections that either confirm
them in power or replace them with new officials.

5. Sociologists have undertaken a search for those social conditions that favor a stable
democracy.

6. One factor is political pluralism, a social arrangement characterized by a competitive

struggle for positions of power, challenges to incumbents, and shifts in the parties
holding office.

7. Democratic values include, free and competitive elections, the right to form opposition
parties, freedom to critisize those in power, freedom to seek public office, and popular
participation.

TOTALITARIANISM
1. Government undertakes to extend control over all parts of the society and all aspects of
social life.

2. All forms of social organization become an extension of the state and are expected to act
as its agent.

3. A totalitarian society typically has three characteristics: a monolithic political party, a

compelling ideology, and pervasive social control.
POLITICAL PARTIES
1. Durable organization formed to gain control of the government by putting its people in
public office.

MASS MEDIA
1. Those organizations- newspapers, magazines, television, and radio- that undertake to
communicate with a large segment of the public.

2. For effective political participation, the public must have access to information on what
is going on in government.

3. Although there is little credible evidence that the television networks knowingly favor
particular presidential candidate/political party, they do influence public attitudes by their
selection of news events.

4. In conducting their campaigns, more and more candidates are turning to high-powered
professionals who advice them on every detail, ranging from which issues they should
tackle to the images they should project in media appearances.

5. Computer technology is also being employed to target specific voter groups, and then
bombard them with TV advertising specifically tailored to them.

6. Campaign managers are employing public opinion polls not only to find out how voters
percieve their candidates, but to determine what voters want to hear their candidates say.