Introduction To Law and Politics

Introduction to Law
and Politics
Mohd Haris bin Abdul Rani
Topic 1 – Introduction to Law & Politics
Why study Law & Politics?
It is very important for us to know the definition of both area of the study
and see how they are related to one another. This is because:-
1. As a citizen, you will be exposed to the reality of life; law and politics
2. As a player of politics, you need to maneuver yourself within it
3. As a legal professional, you don't want to be influenced by Politics
4. As the seeker of truth; you don’t want politics to dominate the environment
Why study Law & Politics is important?
It is very important because:-
1. You want to pass this paper!

2. You need to be aware of what is going on with the society
3. You don’t want to be manipulated by anyone
4. You want to be in control, in a world that is out of control
5. You want justice not only for yourself but for everyone else
What is Law?
Law is a system of rules created and enforced through

social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,
(with its precise definition a matter of longstanding

debate).
What is Politics?
Politics (from Greek; 'affairs of the cities') is the set of activities that are
associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power
relations between individuals, such as the distribution of resources or
status.
The academic study of politics is referred to as political science.

What is Politics?
In the view of Harold Lasswell (P/scientist), politics is "who gets what, when, how."
For David Easton(P/scientist), it is about "the authoritative allocation of values for
a society.“
To Vladimir Lenin (P/Theorist), "politics is the most concentrated expression of
economics."
Bernard Crick (P/Theorist) argued that "politics is a distinctive form of rule
whereby people act together through institutionalized procedures to resolve
differences, to conciliate diverse interests and values and to make public policies
in the pursuit of common purposes."
What is Politics?
According to Adrian Leftwich (P/Activist):

“Politics comprises all the activities of co-operation, negotiation and
conflict within and between societies, whereby people go about
organizing the use, production or distribution of human, natural and
other resources in the course of the production and reproduction of
their biological and social life.”
What is Law & What is Politics
Haris “Power struggle”

LAW
Fact: Politicians wants to control Law

Fact: Law is something that can be dangerous to Politicians

Topic 1 – Political History
Political History
Political history studies the organization and operation of power

in large societies. By focusing on the elites in power,
on their impact on society, on popular response, and
on the relationships with the elites in other social history,
which focuses predominantly on the actions and lifestyles of ordinary people,
or people's history, which is historical work
from the perspective of the common people.
e.g. politics of slavery / transatlantic slavery

Political History
Political history is the narrative and survey, of political events,

ideas, movements, organs of government, voters, parties and leaders.
It is interrelated to other fields of history, especially diplomatic history,

as well as constitutional history and public history.
a) Diplomatic history
Diplomatic history deals with the history of international relations between states.
Diplomatic history can be different from international relations in that the former
can concern itself with the foreign policy of one state while the latter deals with
relations between two or more states. Diplomatic history tends to be more
concerned with the history of diplomacy, but international relations concern
more with current events and creating a model intended to shed explanatory
light on international politics.
e.g. Foreign Envoys, Special Envoys, Messengers, Representatives, Ambassadors,

b) Constitutional history
Reflect the establishment of a given country by way of the historical perspective.
e.g. Constitutional History of Malaysia

Constitutional History of Thailand
Constitutional History of England
and many others
c) Public history
Concerning the history of the people as a whole.
e.g. People of China

People of India
People of Europe
People of America
Political Philosophy
Political philosophy is the study of fundamental questions about

the state, government, politics, liberty, justice and the enforcement
of a legal code by authority. It is Ethics applied to a group of people,
and discusses how a society should be set up and how one should act within a society.
Individual rights (such as the right to life, liberty, property, the pursuit of happiness,
free speech, self-defense, etc.) state explicitly the requirements for a person
to benefit rather than suffer from living in a society.
Political Philosophy
Political theory also engages questions of a broader scope, tackling the political nature
of phenomena and categories such as identity, culture, sexuality, race, wealth,
human-nonhuman relations, ecology, religion, and more.
Political Terminology
Online Political Terminology
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=
Category:Political_terminology&pagefrom=
Metapolitics#mw-pages
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article
s/teaching-content/vocabulary-political-
words/
Political Methodology
Political methodology is a subfield of political science that studies the

quantitative and qualitative methods used to study politics. Quantitative
methods combine statistics, mathematics, and formal theory. Political
methodology is often used for positive research, in contrast to normative
research.
Positivism is a philosophical theory which states that Normative generally means relating to an evaluative
"genuine" knowledge (knowledge of anything which standard. Normativity is the phenomenon in human
is not true by definition) is exclusively derived from societies of designating some actions or outcomes as
experience of natural phenomena and their good or desirable or permissible and others as bad or
properties and relations. Thus, information derived undesirable or impermissible. A norm in this normative
from sensory experience, as interpreted through sense means a standard for evaluating or making
reason and logic, forms the exclusive source of all judgments about behavior or outcomes.
certain knowledge. Positivism therefore holds that all
genuine knowledge is a posteriori knowledge.
Political Methodology
A variety of methods are deployed in politics, which include promoting one's

own political views among people, negotiation with other political subjects,
making laws, and exercising force, including warfare against adversaries.
End class
Topic 1
Modern Law and
Politics
Topic 2
• Legal and Political System

• Legal and Political Culture and Obligation
• Legal and Political Socialisation
• Legal and Political Change
Topic 2
(establishing the link between law and a

given political system in the world)
Political System
• Defines the process for making official government decisions

• Q? but what is government? and
• in what kind of system that the official government decisions being made?
• Look at what is the society setting they are in then we are able to
understand how political system works.
who holds the power

Political System
• Band society – perhaps a group or a camp making it a simple type of

human society, normally A gathering of a small families, no larger than
an extended family or clan. Probably around 30 to 50 individuals.
Political System?
Law?
who holds the power
Political System
• Tribe society – larger, consisting of many families. Tribes have more social
institutions, such as a chief or elders. More permanent than bands. Many
tribes are sub-divided into bands.
Political System?
Law?
who holds the power
Political System
• Chiefdom – larger than both band and tribe. More authoritarian in nature
where power are centered to single lineage/family perhaps with elite class
as the ruling class in the form of families or 'houses’. A stage like hierarchy
comprises of several tiers. Extended to several villages under the
paramount chief.
Political System?
Law?
who holds the power
Political System
• Empires – a very large location of land and waters under the control of a
single ruler who control under one religion and always are at war with their
neighboring empire or state.
Political System?
Law?
who holds the power
Political System
• Sovereign state – defined territory with general population of residence in

permanent nature. Ability to enter into diplomatic relationship with other
sovereign states.
Political System?
Law?
who holds the power
Political System
• Supranational political systems – A group of nations joining force to achieve

a common goal or gain strength from forming such an alliance.
Political System?
Law?
who holds the power
End class
Topic 2
Modern Law and
Politics
Topic 2 Modern Law and Politics

Topic 2 > What is Political Culture?
• First is the understanding of what is Culture?

• What is then Political Culture?
• Who came up with this term?
• Why is it important to them?
• Why is it important to us who study law?
Topic 2 > Political Culture
• What is Culture?
The way of life, especially the general customs

and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a
particular time
Cambridge Dictionary
• What is Political Culture?
Political culture, in political science, a set of

shared views and normative judgments held by
a population regarding its political system
Britannica
• Remember Political System?

Political culture, in political science, a set of

shared views and normative judgments held by
a population regarding its political system
Britannica
The notion of political culture does not refer to

attitudes toward specific actors, such as a
president or prime minister, but rather denotes
how people view the political system as a whole
and their belief in its legitimacy.
Britannica
Lucian Pye defined political culture as the

composite of basic values, feelings, and
knowledge that underlie the political process.
Hence, the building blocks of political culture are
the beliefs, opinions, and emotions of the
citizens toward their form of government.
Britannica
Angry Trump
supporters
protest
election
outcome at
Roundhouse
Who came up with this term?
• Historians,
• Political Scientist,
• Literary scholar (Philology),
• Anthropologist
Why is it important to them?
• In a parochial political culture, citizens are only indistinctly

aware of the existence of central government. In a subject
political culture, citizens see themselves not as
participants in the political process but as subjects of the
government. In a participant political culture, citizens
believe both that they can contribute to the system and
that they are affected by it.
Gabriel Almond and Sydney Verba (political scientists)
Why is it important to them?
• Democracy (political system) will prove most stable in societies

where subject and parochial attitudes provide ballast to an
essentially participant culture. This mix is known as civic culture.
In this ideal combination, the citizens are sufficiently active in
politics to express their preferences to rulers but not so involved
as to refuse to accept decisions with which they disagree. Thus,
the civic culture resolves the tension within democracy between
popular control and effective governance.
Why is it important to us who study law?
Interpretation of political culture as an effective tool for the

study of legal rules and legal meaning. This interdisciplinary
work in the humanities comes at a time when the legal
academy has once again begun to look outside itself in a
fresh effort to enrich its own understanding of legal rules and
the role of law in society.
Why is it important to us who study law?
Interpretation of political culture as an effective tool for the study of legal rules and legal
meaning. This interdisciplinary work in the humanities comes at a time when the legal academy
has once again begun to look outside itself in a fresh effort to enrich its own understanding of
legal rules and the role of law in society.
Can we have a reflection of this?

Reading
Introduction: Law and Political Culture
Political Culture And Judicial Research

Topic 2

• Topic 2 > Legal and Political Socialisation
• What is Political Socialisation?
Political socialization is the "process by which individuals

learn and frequently internalize a political lens framing their
perceptions of how power is arranged and how the world
around them is (and should be) organized; those
perceptions, in turn, shape and define individuals' definitions
of who they are and how they should behave in the political
and economic institutions in which they live.
It also encompasses the way in which people acquire values

and opinions that shape their political stance and ideology: it
is a "study of the developmental processes by which people
of all ages and adolescents acquire political cognition,
attitudes, and behaviors
It refers to a learning process by which norms and behaviors

acceptable to a well running political system are transmitted
from one generation to another. It is through the
performance of this function that individuals are inducted
into the political culture and their orientations towards
political objects are formed.
Schools, media, and the state have a major influence in this
process
• What is IMPACTing of Political Socialisation? Why?
Agents of socialization, sometimes referred to as institutions,

work together to influence and shape people's political and
economic norms and values. Such institutions include, but
are not limited to: families, media, peers, schools, religions,
work and legal systems
legal systems (legal institutions)> everything for everyone >
controls everything (families, media, peers, schools, religions,
work)
Topic 2 > Modern Law and Politics



Modern Law and Politics

• Ability to understand the impact of politics w
towards how the society functions in any
given legal system.
Legal and Political System

Legal and Political Culture and Obligation
Legal and Political Socialisation
Legal and Political Change
Topic 3
The Nature of State
Topic 2 > The Nature of State
What is the difference between Political System and

Political State
The Nature of State: What, How & Why

The Nature of State: What
The state is the quintessential modern

political institution. What has been
referred to variously as “the modern
state,” “the nation-state,” “the
constitutional state,” or “the bureaucratic
state” has existed for no longer than five
centuries and no less than two.
Oxford Bibliographies Online
The Nature of State: How
The very nature of human society has undergone

monumental transformations, and states have
been at the center of each change. While the
relevance of states to modern society—and to
modern forms of politics—is widely recognized,
the precise nature of the state and state power is
the subject of perennial debate.
The Nature of State: Why
The study of politics has ebbed and flowed from

state-centered explanations of political
phenomena to society-centered explanations,
wherein the state is seen as epiphenomenal to
more-microlevel processes.

political definition of State

A state is a polity under a system of
governance. There is no undisputed definition
of a state. A widely used definition from the
German sociologist Max Weber is that a
"state" is a polity that maintains a monopoly
on the legitimate use of violence, although
other definitions are not uncommon.
Wikipedia
Political definition of State

A polity is an identifiable political entity—any
group of people who have a collective identity, who
are organized by some form of institutionalized
social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize
resources. A polity can be any other group of
people organized for governance (such as a
corporate board), the government of a country,
country subdivision, or a sovereign state. Wikipedia
Legal definition of State
duhaime.org
Legal and Political classification of State

States come in a variety of forms that vary based
on who holds power, how positions of leadership
are obtained, and how authority is maintained. The
United States is a democratic presidential republic:
a democratic government headed by a powerful
elected executive, the president.
lumenlearning.com

The United States originally won its independence from
Britain, which was a monarchy, in which power was
concentrated in an individual king. Other forms of
government include oligarchy and dictatorship or
totalitarianism. One way to classify these governments is
by looking at how leaders gain power. Under this system,
governments fall into general categories of
authoritarianism, oligarchy, and democracy.
lumenlearning.com

Authoritarian Governments
Authoritarian governments differ in who holds power and

in how much control they assume over those that they
govern, but all are marked by the fact that the
empowered are unelected individuals. One well-known
example of this type of government is a monarchy.
lumenlearning.com

A monarchy is a form of government in which supreme
power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an
individual, who is the head of state, often for life or until
abdication. The person who heads a monarchy is called a
monarch. There is no clear definition of monarchy.
lumenlearning.com

Oligarchic Governments
An oligarchy is a form of government in which power
effectively rests with a small elite segment of society
distinguished by royalty, wealth, family, military, or religious
hegemony.
lumenlearning.com

An oligarchy is different from a true democracy because very
few people are given the chance to change things. An
oligarchy does not have to be hereditary or monarchic. An
oligarchy does not have one clear ruler, but several powerful
people who rule. One common example is that of theocracy.
lumenlearning.com

Theocracy is a form of government in which a god or deity
is recognized as the state’s supreme civil ruler, or in a
broader sense, a form of government in which a state is
governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials
who are regarded as divinely guided.
lumenlearning.com
Theocratic governments enact theonomic laws.

Theocracies are distinguished from other secular forms of
government that have a state religion, or are merely
influenced by theological or moral concepts, and
monarchies held “by the Grace of God. ”
lumenlearning.com
Democratic Governments
Democracy is a form of government in which the right to
govern is held by the majority of citizens within a country
or a state. The two principles of a democracy are that all
citizens have equal access to power and that all citizens
enjoy universally recognized freedoms and liberties.
lumenlearning.com

There are several varieties of democracy, some of which
provide better representation and more freedoms for their
citizens than others. However, if any democracy is not
carefully legislated with balances, such as the separation
of powers, to avoid an uneven distribution of political
power, then a branch of the system of rule could
accumulate power and become harmful to the democracy
itself.
lumenlearning.com
Freedom of political expression, freedom of speech, and

freedom of the press are essential so that citizens are
informed and able to vote in their personal interests.
lumenlearning.com
A monarchy is a form of government in which supreme

power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an
individual, who is the head of state, often for life or until
abdication. The person who heads a monarchy is called a
monarch.
lumenlearning.com
Oligarchy
An oligarchy is a form of government in which power
effectively rests with a small elite segment of society. An
oligarchy is a form of government in which power
effectively rests with a small elite segment of society
distinguished by royalty, wealth, family, military, or
religious hegemony.
lumenlearning.com
Oligarchies are often controlled by politically powerful

families whose children are heavily conditioned and
mentored to be heirs of the power of the oligarchy. These
types of states have been tyrannical throughout history,
relying on public servitude and complacency in order to
exist.
lumenlearning.com
lumenlearning.com
Dictatorship and Totalitarianism

Dictatorships govern without consent of the people and in
totalitarian dictatorships the power to govern extends to
all aspects of life.
lumenlearning.com
Dictatorship and totalitarianism are often associated, but

they are actually two separate phenomena. Dictatorship is
a form of government in which the ruler has the power to
govern without consent of those being governed.
Dictatorship can also be defined simply as “a system that
does not adhere to democracy,” where democracy is
defined as a form of government where those who govern
are selected through contested elections.
lumenlearning.com
A dictator’s power can originate

in his or her family, political position, or military authority.
Many dictatorships are also totalitarian. Totalitarian

governments are those that exert total control over the
governed; they regulate nearly every aspect of public and
private behavior.
lumenlearning.com
Democracy
Democracy is a form of government in which sovereignty
is held by the majority of citizens within a country or a
state. Democracy is a form of government in which the
power of government comes from the people. More
formally, we might say that in democracy, the right to
govern, or sovereignty, is held by the majority of citizens
within a country or state.
lumenlearning.com
Even though there is no universally accepted definition of

democracy, all definitions include two fundamental
principles: First, in a democracy, all citizens have equal
access to power. Second, all citizens enjoy universally
recognized freedoms and liberties.
lumenlearning.com

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Introduction to Law

It is very important because:-

1. You want to pass this paper!

Law is a system of rules created and enforced through

(with its precise definition a matter of longstanding

The academic study of politics is referred to as political science.

According to Adrian Leftwich (P/Activist):

Haris “Power struggle”

Fact: Politicians wants to control Law

Fact: Law is something that can be dangerous to Politicians

Political history studies the organization and operation of power

e.g. politics of slavery / transatlantic slavery

Political history is the narrative and survey, of political events,

It is interrelated to other fields of history, especially diplomatic history,

e.g. Foreign Envoys, Special Envoys, Messengers, Representatives, Ambassadors,

Reflect the establishment of a given country by way of the historical perspective.

e.g. Constitutional History of Malaysia

Concerning the history of the people as a whole.

e.g. People of China

Political philosophy is the study of fundamental questions about

Online Political Terminology

Political methodology is a subfield of political science that studies the

A variety of methods are deployed in politics, which include promoting one's

• Legal and Political System

• Legal and Political System

(establishing the link between law and a

• Defines the process for making official government decisions

who holds the power

• Band society – perhaps a group or a camp making it a simple type of

• Sovereign state – defined territory with general population of residence in

• Supranational political systems – A group of nations joining force to achieve

• Legal and Political System

• First is the understanding of what is Culture?

The way of life, especially the general customs

• What is Political Culture?

Political culture, in political science, a set of

• Remember Political System?

Political culture, in political science, a set of

The notion of political culture does not refer to

Lucian Pye defined political culture as the

Who came up with this term?

• In a parochial political culture, citizens are only indistinctly

Why is it important to them?

• Democracy (political system) will prove most stable in societies

Why is it important to us who study law?

Interpretation of political culture as an effective tool for the

Why is it important to us who study law?

Can we have a reflection of this?

Introduction: Law and Political Culture

Political Culture And Judicial Research

• Legal and Political System

• What is Political Socialisation?

Political socialization is the "process by which individuals

• What is Political Socialisation?

It also encompasses the way in which people acquire values

• What is Political Socialisation?

It refers to a learning process by which norms and behaviors

• What is IMPACTing of Political Socialisation? Why?

Agents of socialization, sometimes referred to as institutions,

• Legal and Political System

Haris “Power struggle”

Haris “Power struggle”

Modern Law and Politics