SOC 100 Week 8 Part 1: Introduction to Sociology Politics and Government Slide # Slide 1 Slide Title Introduction Slide

e Narration Welcome to Introduction to Sociology. In this lesson we will discuss Politics and Government Slide 2 Topics Next slide. The following topics will be covered in this lesson: Power and Authority; Politics in Global Perspective; Politics in the United States; Theoretical Analysis of Power in Society; Power Beyond the Rules; War and Peace; and Politics: Looking Ahead. Slide 3 Power and Authority Next slide. Politics is the social institution that distributes power, sets a societys goals, and makes decisions. Politics defines the dynamics of power within societies and among nations. Max Weber claimed that every society is based on Power. Power is the ability to achieve desired ends despite resistance from others. The exercise of power is the business of government. Government is a formal organization that directs the political life of a society. Governments demand compliance on the part of a population. Every government tries to establish its power as legitimate in the eyes of the people. Governments attains legitimacy through the use of authority. Authority is power that people perceive as legitimate rather than coercive. Max Weber pointed to three types of authority which societies employ to insure compliance from a population. First, Traditional authority is power legitimized through respect for long-established cultural patterns. According to Weber, preindustrial societies rely on traditional authority because people accept a system, usually one of hereditary leadership, simply because it has always been that way. The power of tradition can be

so strong that people come to projecting almost godlike status to traditional rulers. Traditional authority is also a source of strength for patriarchy, the domination of men over women. Finally, it is important to note that traditional authority declines as societies industrialize due to the modern scientific thinking, specialized demand, social changes, and cultural diversity that results from the aforementioned industrialization. The second type of authority Weber emphasized is rational-legal authority, sometimes called bureaucratic authority is power legitimized by legally enacted rules and regulations. For example, established lawful governments such as the United States are forms of rational-legal authority. Rationally enacted rules also guide the use of power in everyday life in such social situations as schools and law enforcement. Third, Weber identified charismatic authority as power legitimized through extraordinary personal abilities that inspire devotion and obedience and is driven mainly by a persons personality. For example, Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Adolf Hitler are examples of charismatic authority. Charismatic authority flows from a single individual. In order for the charismatic movement to survive, the routinization of charisma must occur. The routinization of charisma is the transformation of charismatic authority into some combination of traditional and bureaucratic authority. For example, after the death of Jesus, his followers institutionalized his teachings in the Catholic Church, which has lasted for two thousand years. Slide 4 Politics in Global Perspective Next Slide. Political systems have changed over the course of history and also reflect the level of technological development of societies. Hunting and gathering societies operated like large families without any formal governments and leadership generally fell to a dominant male. In agrarian societies, a small elite gains control of the power and resources and moves the political aspects into a social institution unto itself. It is at this point that

traditional authority begins to take hold. As societies grow bigger, a political state, or a national government forms and historically manifested itself in the formation of a city-state. More complexity in technology and social arrangements brings about the large-scale system of nation-states. The world has one hundred ninety four independent nation states. Sociologists find that the worlds political systems can be analyzed in terms of four categories. First, Monarchy is a type of political system in which a single family rules from generation to generation. While monarchies can trace their dominance to ancient agrarian societies, there are still twenty-seven nations have royal families today. There are two types of monarchs. Absolute monarchs rule by what they called divine right. Constitutional monarchs are symbolic heads of state whose positions often reflect a former rule by divine right. Second, Democracy is a type of political system that gives power to the people as a whole. Democracies are often called representative democracies where authority rests in the hands of leaders chosen by the people in elections. Democracies, suffer from two problems. First, large, rich nations with large populations actually restrict the freedom on which democracy rests through the formation of bureaucracies which are needed to address the needs of social life. Second, large bureaucratic democracies restrict freedom since they create social inequality where the wealthy have more resources and power than the people who are less well-off. The two types of economic societies, capitalist and socialist, both claim to be democracies. To get a better understanding of these competing views, we need to look more closely at political economy, the interplay of politics and economics. Capitalist countries, such as the United States, Canada, and the nations of Europe, claim to be democracies because of their advocacy of a free market economy that relies on the guarantee of personal liberty which in turn

allows people to act in their self-interest to pursue personal profit. However, capitalist societies are marred by a striking inequality of income and wealth and critics claim that an elite group of people dominate the economic and political life of a society, mostly at the determent of the rest of the populace. In contrast, socialist countries claim to be democracies because their economies meet everyones basic needs for housing, schooling, work, and medical care. For example, even though Cuba is a much poorer country that America they provide basic medical care to every citizen regardless of their ability to pay. Critics of this approach argue that extensive government regulation of everyday social life can be oppressive. Cuba as well as China does not allow people to freely travel or fly internationally. They also do not tolerate organized political opposition. As you can see, this raises an important question, can economic equality and political liberty operate together. While socialism fosters economic equality but it also limits individual choice. Capitalism, on the other hand, offers wide ranging political freedoms but many of these liberties dont mean much to the poor members of the society. Next slide. Slide 5 Politics in Global Perspective, continued Let us continue our discussion about the four world political systems. The Third political system Authoritarianism is a political system that denies popular participation in government. An authoritarian government is indifferent to the needs of ordinary people, offers them no legal means to remove leaders from office, and makes use of force to quell dissent or opposition. Authoritarianism, which can be seen in absolute monarchies or military juntas, can be extreme as it was in Saddam Husseins Iraq, or less extreme as it is in the nation of Singapore. The Fourth and final world political system, Totalitarianism is a highly centralized political system that extensively regulates peoples lives. Totalitarianism, driven by the technological advances of the twentieth century, is the most intensely controlled political form. As the term implies, such governments have total

concentration of power, allow no political opposition, and create an atmosphere of isolation and fear. Totalitarian societies such as Nazi Germany and the communist Soviet Union as well as todays most oppressive nation, North Korea closely monitor the activities of their populations using surveillance equipment and computers to collect and store information about their populace. Government-controlled schools and mass media present only official versions of events and issues resulting in a strong sense of obedience and commitment to the system. In light of the emergence of a global economic system, Sociologists ask whether or not we are moving toward a global political system. The short answer is no. The continued existence of different types of nation-states is evidence of a lack of a global political system. Perhaps in time due to the interaction between nationstates in the global economy and the information revolution that increases global communications and politics. Furthermore, multinational corporations have created a new political reality because of their immense influence on world-wide events and in many cases being larger and more powerful than governments. Finally, nongovernmental organizations, known as N-GOs, also seek to advance global issues and will continue to play a role in expanding the global culture. Next Slide Slide 6 Politics in the United States The politics of the United States reflects our history, cultural heritage, and capitalist economy. Sociologists who study politics in the United States focus on the following important aspects of the American political system. The emphasis of individualism in the Bill of Rights, which guarantees freedom from undue government interference, effectively sums up the political culture of the United States. However, over time most American citizens have come to believe that government is necessary to defend the country, operate highway systems and schools, maintain law and order, and increasingly to help people in need. As a result, the United States government has grown into a vast and

complex welfare state. A welfare state is a range of government agencies and programs that provides benefits to the population. These benefits can start before birth, in the form of pre-natal care, and continue throughout ones life culminating in Social Security and Medicare, the staple programs for the elderly. Many of the program do support the less fortunate, who are ill-served by the capitalist economy, but others benefit students, farmers, homeowners, small business owners, veterans, performers, and even giant corporations. This has led to a gradual but immense growth in the size and scope of government. For example, two hundred years ago our federal budget was four-point-five million dollars and we had one government employee for every eighteen-hundred citizens. Today our federal budget is over three trillion dollars and one of every seven workers is a government employee. The political spectrum in the United States ranges from extremely liberal to extremely conservative and people define themselves as liberal or conservative on the basis of their attitudes toward particular issues. About onefourth of American adults fall on the liberal, or left side, and approximately one-third say they are conservative, placing themselves on the political right. Sociologists find that the issues used by Americans in deciding where they fall in the political spectrum can be put into two general classes. Those classes are economic issues and social issues. Economic issues concern inequality. For example, liberals tend to identify with expanded government programs that reduce economic inequality of all people. They advocate higher taxes on the wealthy to provide more benefits to the poor. Conservatives, on the other hand, seek to limit government spending on social programs and emphasize lower taxes for all, especially the wealthy. They claim this makes the economy more productive and creates more jobs. Social issues are moral questions about how people ought to live, ranging from abortion and the death penalty to gay rights and the treatment of minorities. For

example, liberals tend to endorse such things as rights and opportunities for all categories of people, oppose the death penalty and advocate personal choice in a womans right to abortion. Conservatives, on the other hand, often oppose abortion rights, gay marriage and affirmative action, and support the death penalty and traditional gender roles. With regard to the two major political parties in the U-S, Republicans are more conservative and Democrats are more liberal on both economic and social issues. Next slide. Slide 7 Politics in the United States, continued We now turn to discussing political decisions as correlated with the categories of class, race, and gender and see certain general patterns emerge. The upper classes tend to be conservative on economic issues but liberal on social issues. The lower classes tend to be liberal on economic issues but conservative on social issues. Continuing, people of color tend to be more liberal than whites on all issues and women tend to be more liberal than men on all issues. As mentioned earlier, political parties in the United States have come to be associated with particular political positions on issues. The Democratic Party, favored by about thirty five percent of Americans, takes a liberal stance on economic and social issues while the Republican Party, favored by approximately twenty-three percent, takes a conservative stance on economic and social issues. The remaining Americans say they are independent. Because many Americans hold mixed political attitudes on economic and social issues, party identification in the United States is weak. This manifests itself in how each political party gains and losses power from election to election. One final note is the rural-urban politic divide, generally people who live in our cities vote Democratic while those living in less densely populated areas vote Republican. Next Slide Slide 8 Politics in the United An important part of the American political scene is the role special-interests groups, people organized to address some economic or social issue, play on every

States, continued.

level of government. Special-interest groups employ lobbyists who work on their behalf, trying to get politicians to support their goals and policies. An extension of this involves political actions committees or PACS. A political action committee is an organization formed by a specialinterest group, independent of political parties, to raise and spend money in support of political aims. Political action committees contribute funds to political candidates who support their interests. As political campaigns have become more and more expensive, most incumbents and candidates eagerly accept financial support from PACS. While proponents of PACS argue that they represent the legitimate concerns of members and increase political participation, critics claim that their cash contributions buy them favorable political access and influence at the expense of the general populace. A disheartening fact of American political life is that many people do not vote on the national level and even in less numbers for state and local elections. Voter apathy has come to signify peoples response to our American political system. Even the election of 2008, which saw an increase in voter participation, saw about sixty three percent of eligible voters cast a ballot. Who is and who is not likely to vote? Women and the elderly vote in bigger numbers than men and college-aged adults, Whites more than African Americans, and high-income people more than lowincome people. Conservatives claim that voter apathy is caused by indifference to politics brought by contentment with life in general. Liberals claim that voter apathy is reflects an alienation from politics caused by dissatisfaction with society. Because of our high crime rates, which result in the conviction of millions of criminals, the laws which prevent convicted criminals from voting have a measurable impact on U.S. elections. Overall, roughly five-point-three million Americans may not vote in U.S. elections. Many critics argue that this policy favors Republicans because convicted felons tend to be lowerincome people who vote for Democratic candidates over

Republican candidates by better than two to one. Next Slide. Slide 9 Check Your Understanding Theoretical Analysis of Power in Society Sociologists who study the distribution of power in society find that it is a difficult topic to study because decision-making is complex and often takes place behind closed doors. Despite this, researchers have developed three theoretical positions on power; the pluralist model of power, the power-elite model of power, and the Marxist model of power. The pluralist model of power, linked to the structuralfunctionalist theory, is an analysis of politics that sees power as dispersed among many competing interest groups. Pluralists, most importantly, claim that politics is an arena of negotiation. The political process relies on forming alliances and compromises among various interest groups so that policies can gain support and also can keep opponents from achieving their ends. Summarizing, pluralists see power as widely dispersed through society with all people having a voice in the political system. The power-elite model of power, based on the socialconflict theory, is an analysis of politics that sees power as concentrated among the rich. The term power elite was coined by C. Wright Mills in 1959, who advocated that a small upper class holds most of societys wealth, prestige, and power. This concentration of wealth, prestige, and power manifested itself in three major sectors of U-S society; the economy, the government, and the military. The individuals who make up the super-rich move from one sector to another amassing more power along the way. Power-elite theorists say America is not really a democracy because the concentration of wealth and power is too great for the average persons voice to be heard. The Marxist political-economy model of power is an analysis that explains politics in terms of the operation of a societys economic system. Marxists take the powerelite model a step further and say that aforementioned super rich are in fact creations of the capitalist economy and the bias rooted in the nations institutions that

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support it. Therefore they claim that without economic democracy, which they advocate does not exist in the capitalist system, there will be no political democracy and most people will be shut out of the politics just as they are exploited in the workplace. Next slide. Slide 11 Power Beyond the Rules In society, there is always political controversy and disagreement over a societys goals and how best to achieve them. Political systems try to resolve these controversies and disagreements by enacting rules and laws that govern the political process. Sometimes, political activity can break the rules and oppose the system and then manifest themselves in two important types of such political activity, revolutions and terrorism. Political Revolution is the overthrow of one political system in order to establish another and involves change within the system, either through modification of law or through a coup dtat where one leader topples another. No political system is immune to revolution nor does revolution produce any particular type of government. Despite this, sociologists find that revolutions share four traits. First, rising expectations of the people as their standard of living improves. Secondly, unresponsive governments that are unwilling to reform as powerful segments of society are ignored. Third, radical leadership by intellectuals and universities who are often at the center of political change. Finally, the process of establishing a new legitimacy for the new system is not easy and ensuring a revolutions long term success is even harder. The results of revolutions are mixed and often take years and years to evaluate the full affect of them. Terrorism refers to acts of violence or the threat of such violence used as a political strategy by an individual or a group. Like revolution, terrorism is a political act taking place outside of the rules and established political systems. Sociologists find that terrorism has four characteristics. First, terrorism tries to paint violence as a legitimate

tactic, even though such acts are condemned by virtually every nation on earth. Terrorism as a strategy is used by weaker organizations against stronger ones. Second, terrorism is used not just by groups but also by governments against their own people and without the support of law. Terrorism perpetrated by governments and government officials is called state terrorism. Third, terrorism is rejected by Democratic societies but embraced by totalitarian regimes. Democratic societies are vulnerable to terrorism because of the extensive civil liberties granted to the populace and their lack of extensive police networks. Finally terrorism is a matter of definition and perspective. Governments may label opposition groups as terrorists in an effort to maintain social order. What is defined as a freedom fighter by one group may be defined as a terrorist by another. Next slide. Slide 12 War and Peace The most critical political issue confronting societies is war. War is organized, armed conflict among people of various nations directed by their government. Sociologists point out that for most of the twentieth century nations somewhere on Earth were at war. It is especially crucial today to understand war because humanity now has the capability to destroy the entire planet. Sociologist Quincy Wright identified five factors that promote war. Number 1, nations mobilize in response to perceived threats to a people, territory, or culture. Number 2, a nations leaders may divert attention to social problems by scapegoating an external enemy. Number 3, nations may use war as a political objective to foster change or enhance global political stature. Number 4, moral objectives which claim moral justification over an evil and immoral enemy are used as a reason to go to war. Number 5, there is an absence of alternatives to the

resolution of conflict. In contrast to earlier wars such as World War Two and the Vietnam conflict, there is no military draft. As a result, there emerge some distinct characteristics of the people who make up the armed forces of today. There are very few people who are rich and also few who are very poor. Primarily working class people, southerners, and those who grow up close to a military base make up the bulk of enlisted men and women. Terrorism is considered a new kind of war. War has historically been conducted in the global arena and is subject to rules. The objectives of war are clearly stated and conventional warfare is symmetrical with two nations sending their forces into battle. Terrorism follows no rules and it is asymmetric in that it uses small groups of attackers who are secretive and often willing to die to level the playing field against a more powerful enemy. Although terrorism is ruthless, the nation under attack must display restraint in its response because in many cases little may be known about the identity and location of the parties involved Armed conflict between nations is expensive. For example, the worlds nations spend over one-point-six trillion dollars a year on militarism. In the United States, defense is our second largest expenditure accounting for twenty two percent of the entire federal budget and makes up almost half of all military spending in the world. Increased militarism as represented in these costs has a variety of causes. For example, analysts claim that increased defense spending has resulted in American society being dominated by a military-industrial complex. A military-industrial complex is the close association of the federal government, the military, and defense industries. This view implies that not only do external threats drive militarism, but institutional structure plays an important role also. Globally, militarism, also, is the result of regional conflict where localized wars frequently effect different parts of the globe and represent the continuation historical conflicts.

Next slide. Slide 13 War and Peace, continued The frequent wars of the not-so-distant past coupled with the development of new technologies led to the creation of weapons of mass destruction, namely nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons have the potential of wiping out life on the entire planet. Despite the easing of superpower tensions, the world still contains over ten thousand operational nuclear warheads. If fact, the world is increasingly experiencing nuclear proliferation. Nuclear proliferation is the acquisition of nuclear weapons technology by more and more nations. Currently, the United States, the Russian Federation, Great Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and probably North Korea all have nuclear weapons. Predictions are that by 2025 there could be as many as fifty nations that have nuclear capabilities, making even the smallest regional conflict very dangerous to the entire planet. As the efficiency and destructive power of weapons has increased, so too has the efficiency and persuasive power of the mass media in bringing war and cultural opinions on wars into the household. The information revolution has provided countries with the ability to report on war in a variety of media. The mass media can provide selective information to people, which reflects specific perspectives on war, the mass media have become crucial to the outcomes of armed conflict. The logical alternative to war is peace. In order to reduce the dangers of war, nations must pursue peace. Sociologists find that nations take four approaches to peace. First, engage in deterrence, where the strength of a nations defense can serve to deter attacks by other nations. While this is effective, it is very expensive and has not stopped the aforementioned nuclear proliferation. Second, nations can construct a high technology defense where weapons used against a nation can be destroyed before they can cause damage. Many argue that this approach would not stop all attacks and in fact could take

the arms race to a more dangerous level. Third, invest heavily in diplomacy and disarmament where negotiation is used to prevent war and insure peace. While teams of diplomats can work together to reduce weapon stockpiles, disarmament does have limitations because no nation wants to be weakened by letting down its defenses. Finally, working towards resolving underlying conflict where the settlement of disputes promotes justice and prevents war. This approach would entail forcing the world to reconsider the wisdom of spending thousands of times as much money on militarism as we do on efforts to find peaceful solutions. Next Slide. Slide 14 Politics: Looking Ahead In analyzing ongoing global political change, sociologists point to a number of problems and trends. First, a problem in the United States in particular, concerns the inconsistency between democratic ideals and voter apathy which results in low voter turnout at the polls. Low voter turnout undermines rule by the people. While the reasons for this are debatable, the current high level of voter apathy indicates that significant political reform is needed. Secondly, the trend toward the expansion of the global political process which is facilitated by the information revolution and new technologies may both cause the spread of democratic ideals through mass media and give governments new tools to control their people. The trend toward the rethinking of traditional political models incorporates a broader range of political systems. This results in the attempt to merge democratic ideals with seemingly incompatible economic and political systems. Finally, stockpiled weapons of mass destruction coupled with frequent regional conflicts raise the risk of nuclear war. Additionally, the emergence of terrorism on a large scale endangers many countries. Next slide. Slide 15 Check Your Understanding

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Summary

We have reached the end of this lesson. Lets take a look at what weve covered. We started by discussing Power and Authority by examining the work of Max Weber who pointed to three types of authority. These types of authority are traditional authority, rational-legal authority, and charismatic authority Then we examined Politics in Global Perspective and how the worlds political systems can be analyzed in terms of four categories. Those categories are monarchy, democracy, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism. Then we examined Politics in the United States and the focus on the five important aspects of the American political system. Then we examined a Theoretical Analysis of Power in Society and that three theoretical positions on power dominate analyses. These three theoretical positions are called the pluralist model of power, the power-elite model of power, and the Marxist model of power. Then we examined Political Revolution, the overthrow of one political system in order to establish another. Sociologists find that revolutions share four traits. Then we examined Power Beyond the Rules. Specifically Terrorism, consisting of acts of violence or the threat of violence used as a political strategy by an individual or a group. Sociologists find that terrorism has four characteristics. Then we examined War and Peace and how the most critical political issue confronting societies is war. Sociologists point out that for most of the twentieth century nations somewhere on Earth were at war. Finally we discussed Politics: Looking ahead and the logical alternative to war is peace. Sociologists find that nations take four approaches to peace. This completes this lesson.