Politics and Social Organization

According to Engels, all known societies are organized in ways that facilitate and maintain the
everyday life and culture of different social groups. The way of inhabiting the world where an
individual needs to mix with other people is conceptualized as social relations.
Power is another word we use to refer to social relations. This means that the rules for relating
socially are observed depending on one’s position in society. This is why all social relations are
power relations. People are not similarly situated in society, they will wield in different ways
forming a hierarchy of social relations wherein some groups wield power over another.
Individuals, would exercise power or lack of power on the basis of their life chances. Life
chances are determined by one’s social origins, primarily one’s economic class. For example in
the social organization class, an individual who comes from the economic elite of a given
society will most likely to wield power over an individual who comes from the dispossessed
class. This social relation between two people, one is rich, the other is poor, is the relation of
power, and it is the kind of relation that makes up politics.
The dominant type politics of any given society, therefore, is a reflection of a society’s social
organization.

State
A state is the means of rule over a defined or “sovereign” territory. It is comprised of an executive,
courts, and other institution. A state levies taxes and operates a military and police force. State
distribute and re-distribute resources and wealth.

State and Class

Class as a social relation, refers to the dominant/ruling class and the dominated/ruled. There are various
signifiers of class, namely; status, lifestyle, and distinction, but what determines class is its economic
basis.

Social class is based on the relationship between property ownership and dispossession. Classes in
society are a result of the accumulation of wealth by the ruling class and the rendering of labor by the
ruled.

The state is the sum total of advantages, privileges, dominating positions that are concretized by
economic power that operates the society, and is monopolized by a few dominant groups and
institutions.

A Russian philosopher, Vladimir Lenin succinctly articulates the relationship between State and Class:
The state is the instrument of class rule. State power is the rule of one class over the rest of society.
Under global capitalism, the State is an instrument for the advantages, interests, and privileges of the
capitalist class.
 Branches and Function of State Power
The Philippines is a republic with a presidential form of government wherein power is equally divided
among its three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.

 Legislative Branch - is authorized to make laws, alter, and repeal them through the power vested
in the Philippine Congress. This institution is divided into the Senate and the House of
Representative.

 Executive Branch - is composed of the President and Vice President who are elected by direct
popular vote and serve a term of six years.

 Judicial Branch - holds the power to settle controversies involving rights that are legally
demandable and enforceable. This branch determines whether or not there has been a grave
abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part and instrumentality of
the government. It is made up of a Supreme Court and lower courts.

The Constitution grants the Supreme Court the power of Judicial Review as the power to declare
a treaty, international or executive agreement, law, presidential decree, proclamation, order,
instruction, ordinance or regulation unconstitutional.