POLITICAL SCIENCE
influences. It includes the ability to demote or
Politics
 According to Harold Lasswell, politics is “who
gets what, when, and how” and that political
science is the study of “the shaping and sharing
of power.”
 Power is the ability to have others do
something, whether they like it or not.
POWER
 Power is the ability to influence an outcome to
achieve an objective or the ability to influence
someone to act in a way contrary to the way he
or she would choose to act.
 Power affects how resources are distributed,
how countries interact, whether peace or war
prevails, and how groups and individuals
pursue their interests; that is, power affects the
myriad of topics studied by political scientists.
POWER: CHARACTERISTICS
• Power involves the exercise of volition (will).
• Power over someone else involves altering his or her
volition (will).
• Power can be latent or manifest.
• Different types of power are generally blended
together when power is made manifest.
KINDS of POWER
 Legitimate power or "Positional power", it is
the power of an individual because of the
relative position and duties of the holder of the
position within an organization.
 Referent power is the power or ability of
individuals to attract others and build loyalty.
It's based on the charisma and interpersonal
skills of the power holder.
 Expert power is an individual's power deriving
from the skills or expertise of the person and
the organization's needs for those skills and
expertise.
 Reward power depends on the ability of the
power wielder to confer valued material
rewards.
 Coercive power is the application of negative
to withhold other rewards.
 Informational power is based on the potential
use of informational resources.
Weber’s 3 types of Legitimate Authority
1. Charismatic authority - political order is maintained
by the force of a leader’s personality.
2. Traditional authority - political order is maintained
by the constant reference to customs, traditions and
conventions.
3. Rational legal authority - political order is maintained
by a regard of legality in the eyes of the population.
Legitimacy is the mass feeling that the governmental
authority is rightful and should be obeyed.
Political legitimacy means having widespread approval
for the way one exercises political power.
SOURCES of LEGITIMACY
 Legitimacy by results: providing the basic needs
of the people such as security, welfare and
respect for human rights.
 Legitimacy by habit: people through time
become accustomed to obeying the laws of the
government.
 Legitimacy by historical, religious or ethnic
identity: legitimacy may come from various
historical, religious or ethnic sources.
Manipulation is the nonphysical use of power in which
the agent exercising power over a second agent
conceals the aims and intentions motivating the
exercise of power.
Exchange is a type of power involving incentives, in
which one agent gives another agent an item in return
for another item.
 Logrolling refers to a practice in a legislative
body in which one person agrees to vote for a
second person’s favored bill if the second
person, in exchange, will vote for the first
person’s favored bill.
States are organizations claiming ultimate rule-setting
and rule-enforcing authority within their borders.

Unitary states concentrate power at the central, or

national, level

Federal states create different divisions and levels of

government and divide power among those divisions
and levels.

A confederal type of organization, with power

decentralized and held primarily or exclusively by local
offices.

States have ultimate power to make rules and provide

security in a territory, but major non-state actors also
have power.

 Terrorists groups

 multinational corporations (MNCs),

 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and

 intergovernmental organizations (IGOs).

Sovereignty the attribute states have when they, in

actuality, carry out the tasks of providing security,
extraction, and rule making.

Legitimacy is the attribute states possess when their

citizens view their sovereignty as appropriate, proper,
or acceptable.

A nation is a group with a sense of unity, and the unity

is generally related to the fact that members of the
group share a common language, culture, history,
ethnicity, and/or religion.

Nations may or may not have their own states.