POSC 1000 Ch.1 PDF - Intro to Politics & Government

Intro to Politics & Government ​ WINTER SEMESTER 2025 INSTRUCTOR: DR. CAMEN Email : [email protected] JAN 9, 2025 LECTURE Chapter 1 – Understanding Politics Science, Social Science & Political Science ○​ Scientia – Latin word that means “knowledge” ○​ Science refers to a systematic and orga...

Intro to Politics & Government ​ WINTER SEMESTER 2025 INSTRUCTOR: DR. CAMEN Email : [email protected] JAN 9, 2025 LECTURE Chapter 1 – Understanding Politics Science, Social Science & Political Science ○​ Scientia – Latin word that means “knowledge” ○​ Science refers to a systematic and organized body of knowledge in any area of inquiry that is acquired using “the scientific method” ○​ Science can be grouped into two broad categories: natural science and social science. Natural Sciences ○​ Natural science is the science of naturally occurring objects or phenomena, such as light, objects, matter, earth or the human body. ○​ Natural sciences can be further classified into physical sciences, earth sciences, life sciences, and others. ○​ Physical science disciplines: physics (the science of physical objects), ○​ Chemistry (the science of matter), and astronomy (the science of objects in space). ○​ Earth sciences disciplines: geology (the science of the earth). 1  ○​ Life sciences disciplines: biology (the science of living organisms) and botany (the science of plants). Social Science ○​ Social science is the science of people or collections of people. ○​ Example for groups: firms, societies, or economies, and their individual or collective behaviors. Social Science Disciplines ​ Social sciences can be classified into disciplines such as: ​ Political Science ​ psychology (the science of human behaviors) ​ sociology (the science of social groups) ​ economics (the science of firms, markets, and economies) Natural Sciences & Social Sciences ​ The natural sciences are different from the social sciences in several respects. ○​ The natural sciences are very precise, accurate, deterministic, and independent of the person who makes the scientific observations. ○​ If students conducting the same physics experiment obtain two different values of these physical properties, then it generally means that one or both of those students must be in error. ​ Social Sciences = less accurate, deterministic ○​ For instance, if you try to “measure” a person’s happiness, you may find that the same person is more happy or less happy (or sad) on different days and sometimes, at different times on the same day. ○​ Furthermore, there is no instrument (like in natural sciences) or metric that can accurately measure a person’s happiness. 2  ○​ In other words, there is a high degree of measurement error in the social sciences Theory – philosophy – belief Today, social theory has to do with what is, not with what should be. ○​ But for many centuries social theory was not clearly separated from philosophy and beliefs ○​ Science cannot say whether capitalism is better than socialism. ○​ But scientists try to find out, for example, whether capitalism or socialism most support human freedom (of course we need to define the concept of “freedom” first, and then we can compare them) ○​ By analogy, a chronometer cannot tell us if one sprinter is better than the other one if we don’t agree first that speed is the critical criteria JAN 14, 2025 LECTURE Chapter 1 – Understanding Politics (CONTD.) Explanation types in social science and humanities Idiographic and nomothetic explanations ​ Idiographic Explanations ○​ They are unique (case-specific) ○​ We have a single case, and we want to explain this particular case. 3  ​ Nomothetic Explanations ○​ They are general (explaining the same or very similar cases in general terms) ○​ They try to generalize ○​ They want to find out regularities and general rules ○​ nomothetic explanation tends to make generalizations on the basis of same or similar patterns. Idiographic Explanation (in depth) ​ Explaining a single case as a unique example ○​ research that focuses on understanding the unique experiences of individuals or specific cases ​ Goal = a complete understanding of a particular phenomenon, using all relevant causal factors. ○​ Especially history and related disciplines use this method However, also other humanities and social sciences can use this method: ○​ Political science or sociology can combine both idiographic and nomothetic approaches to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomena they do research about. ​ They consider every historical or social situation as one single social reality. They do not look for correlations between similar phenomena. They are not interested in finding regularities or patterns. ​ They just try to analyze a single case with all its details. ​ History is reconstructive (tries to find out what are the missing parts of the puzzle to see the whole picture). ​ No process character ​ Not dynamic (no development of a process) ​ 4 Nomothetic Explanation (in depth) ​ Nomothetic model considers not a single case, but many cases, and tries to find out regularities (type of a behavioral pattern) ​ Goal = a general understanding of a class of phenomena, using a small number of relevant causal factors. ​ It is probabilistic (intends to search causations)​ Disciplines such as political science, economy, sociology etc. have a dynamic process character. There is an ongoing process with a history, present developments and future continuation. ​ There are changes in the process. There is a direction of the developments. ​ Nomothetic model indicates a very high (or very low) probability that a given action will occur whenever a limited number of specific considerations are present. ​ This allows us to find out general tendencies of human behaviour in social groups. 5  Politics is important ​ Ancient Greek philosophers = politics as the “master science” (master of sciences) ​ Dimension of influence: Political decisions on gov. level – influence our lives and our society ○​ Education policies, ○​ tax policies, ○​ foreign policy decisions, ○​ decisions regarding environment or security Definitions of Politics ​ Basis: Humans live in the collective (society, groups etc.) and have collective activities all the time ​ What is politics? ○​ Organized human activity ○​ Decision of groups (human collectivity) ○​ Power relations ○​ Politics is also all decisions about: Who Gets What, When, and How! (Harold Laswell) ○​ Politics is about influencing common decisions ○​ Politics can take place on multiple levels: micro / macro (local, provincial, national, international, supranational). Textbook definition of politics ​ Politics is the activity related to influencing, making or implementing collective decisions for a political community 6 JAN 16, 2025 LECTURE Politics & Power ​ Politics is always related to power ​ People in everyday life always mention ○​ The prime minister is very powerful ○​ USA is the most powerful country ​ Power can be defined in different ways ​ Some elements can increase or even cause power,such as money or public offices ​ Power ○​ Max Weber: Within a social relationship, power is any chance (regardless of the basis of this chance) to carry through one’s own will even against resistance. ○​ The ability to exercise one’s will over others (Max Weber). ○​ Accordingly: Power means particularly to get other people to do what they would not have done otherwise. ○​ The ability to achieve an objective by influencing the behaviour of others (Joseph Nye). ○​ Who Gets What, When, and How! (Harold Laswell) ​ Power isn't only a factor ○​ between individuals, but also between individuals and groups, between groups and institutions, between states, within the human collective. 7  ​ Where power is, there is also hierarchy. ​ Power is an essential factor in decision making processes. How does power work? ​ Coercion: ○​ Using fear or threats of harmful consequences to achieve an outcome. ○​ If your employer threatens you to fire you unless you work on behalf of a certain candidate in an election, coercive power has been used to intimidate you. ​ Inducement: ○​ Using a reward or a bribe. ○​ If your employer promises you a promotion if you support a particular candidate, power has been exercised in the form of an inducement. ​ Persuasion: - influence – ○​ Using truthful information to encourage people to act in accordance with their own interests or values ○​ Or using misleading information (disinformation) to manipulate people. Three Faces of Power concept ​ First face ○​ Ability to affect decisions ​ Second face ○​ Ability to ensure that issues are not raised ​ Third face ○​ Ability to affect the dominant ideas of society Distribution of Power ​ Power is related to resources that individuals or groups have 8  ​ Controlling resources increases your chance to influence other people. ​ Factors, that might be a factor for power distribution: ○​ Property ○​ Money ○​ Social Status ○​ Official status ○​ Control of the means of force ​ Groups differ how effectively they use their power resources. ​ Due to unequal distributed resources, groups (or individuals) cooperate (work together) to achieve their goals / objectives. ​ What can they do? ○​ They mobilize people ○​ They form alliances ○​ They appeal to the values and beliefs of community Authority ​ Authority is the right to exercise power. ​ Those with political authority claim that they have been authorized ○​ By God ○​ Tradition ○​ Legal Rules ○​ Election ​ Max Weber’s typologies about authority (see: Legitimacy) ○​ Charismatic ○​ Traditional ○​ Legal-rational Legitimacy ​ It is about the subjective perception ​ We distinguish legitimacy from legality ​ Being legal is not always being legitimate 9  ​ Acceptance by the members of political community that those in positions of authority have the right to govern ​ Max Weber described three basic types of authority, each of which try to establish its legitimacy in its own way. ​ Max Weber’s typologies about authority ○​ Charismatic ○​ Traditional ○​ Legal-rational Leadership and Typologies of Authority Elizabeth May (Greens) Jagmeet Singh (NDP) Pierre Poilievre (Conservatives) Justin Trudeau (Liberals) Weber’s Typologies of authority ​ Charismatic authority ○​ Based on personal qualities of the leader ​ Extraordinary and supernatural qualities (subjective perception of people relevant!) ​ Positive / negative personalities might have charismatic authority ​ Mao, Lenin, Kennedy, Churchill ​ Definition: Authority based on the perception that a leader has extraordinary or supernatural qualities ​ Traditional authority ○​ It’s based on customs and traditions that establish certain persons to rule. ○​ Elders of a tribe, a ruling family (a dynasty) etc. 10  ○​ Authority of monarchs = traditional authority ○​ Definition: Authority based on customs that establish the right of certain persons to rule ​ Legal-rational authority ○​ Modern societies ○​ Efficient management and bureaucracy ​ Based on legal rules and procedures (rather than the personal qualities or characteristics of the ruler) ​ Authority is impersonal the sense that it rests in official positions​ Prime Minister,president ​ Important: legal-rational authority is limited ​ It is rational because of its goal= maintaining public order ​ Definition:The right to rule based on legal rules and procedures rather than on the personal qualities or characteristics of the ruler. Some important points about legitimacy ​ Free and fair elections cannot guarantee that an elected government can keep its legitimacy till the next elections ​ The legitimacy is about ○​ the perceived rightfulness of how the government(or the system of governing) exercises its authority. ​ Citizens might question the legitimacy of the government, of the system of governing or democratic institutions ○​ If governments are persistently ineffective in dealing with important issues ○​ Or if they are seen as corrupt ○​ For Example:if their policies cause widespread poverty 11  Unemployment Security deficits Or some groups feel that there is a long term mistreatment by the gov. 12