Introduction to Politics

Week 3
 Types of rule
Economic Rule: Mutual benefit to all the parties involved [Trade has only 2, buyer and seller].
Wholly Voluntary
Rested in Mutual interest/benefit--- economic good or satisfaction of want or need.

Paternal Rule: Benefits the ruled (the children)

Involuntary
Love/Caritas/”agape” of the Father/Parent for the child. Echoes the love of God for his creation.

Despotic Rule: Benefits the rulers/masters. [slave/subjects benefit only accidentally.]

Involuntary
Coercive rule over another for your benefit.

Political Rule: Mutual Benefit to all within the given community

Mixed [voluntary/involuntary].
Political rule is the rule over equals, where one is ruler and one is ruled in turn. Political rule is shared rule of the
citizens, who are not subjects, but those that share in rule and being ruled.

Violations of economic, paternal, and political rule leads towards despotic rule. This is to say, that when one violates the expect norm of economic rule, paternal
rule, or political rule, the violation and deviations changes the form of rule towards despotic rule.
Polis/Civitas: Political Community is mixed in character regarding formation, as it can be either
homogeneous or heterogeneous in character. It can be composed of people sharing the
same kin linage or those of different kin groups.

It is also mixed in its voluntary/involuntary character.

It is limited in terms of size and growth like the Tribe. Thus it promotes heterogeneous
diversity of different communities,

It also engages in like the Empire in written Law, public works, organized religion, and
common culture/civilization.

The nature of political community is shared rule, where the ruled are ruled in turn.

And the character of rule benefit all, the whole community. Thus rule is for mutual
advantage of both ruler and ruled.
 The Political as the overcoming the limits of the Tribe and the Empire

The Greek world discovered (or as some may assert, created) an alternative to the organization of tribe and
empire. That alternative was the politics, embodied for the Ancient Greeks by the polis. The realm of the
political offered a why to overcome the limits imposed by the tribe-empire dichotomy, taking the virtues and
useful aspects of both, while avoiding their unwanted vices and/or undesired aspects.
.

The Tribe The Empire

The Political
Politics is that in-between state between familiar-parental rule as embodied by tribal rule, and dominance and
submission required by imperial rule, of the empires or hegemonic units of the pre-classical world.

For the Classical (i.e., Greek and Roman) World the political was embodied by the Polis, whereas for the Moderns, the
political is embodied by the State. But before we look at each more closely, it is very important that we never fail to
distinguish the two and not see them as the same or the former [the polis] as the earlier precursor or more simplistic and
less developed version of the later [the state]. This all occurs all too often and it reflects how strong the modern
prejudices are that the past is read as a mere primitive precursor to the modern present.

Ancient organizational structures are to be fundamentally understood as wholly consistent with modern one, only that
the ancient ones are by definition primitive and less developed or modern that current structures.

This worldview assume that the present is the current state of development of human structures from the past reflecting
man's ever-increasing knowledge and ability to shape and control his environment. Such a worldview distorts the past
and colors it so that we don't see how the modern world was a radical break from that past.

Also only by understanding that ancient past on its own terms can we understand the reasons and justifications that lead
the advocates of modern thought to engage in such a project.
 THE POLIS VS. THE STATE
The ancient form of the political The modern form of the political
The body frames by a community The body frames by [a] society [no
[koinonia]/ Gemeinshaft equal Greek word]/ Gesellschaft
A discrete unit of parts and A unitary construct constructed via a
households, held together by a ruling willing social contract which generates
part/governing body. a union that all submit to and agree to
be ruled by.
Tied to organic and the need to share a Time to agreement and collective
common life together. The body willing the body politic into being.
politics is the mere community of those
who live together and thereby share a
common life together.
Tied to the concept of citizens who are The citizen is in truth more a subject
sharers in rule of the given regime. who possess certain rights and
guarantees.
 Weber’s response to Fredrick Tonnes argument about the distinction between
community/Gemeinshaft vs society/Geshellschaft.
Gemeinshaft Gesellschaft

Community Society

Organic/emergent from environment Artificial/created to fit need or want

Accidental and emergent Arises out of a rational intentionality

Rest on culture and tradition Rest on rationality and law/legality

 Weber’s Three sources of Authority
(Weber, Economy and Society, pgs 342-343
Tradition/Customary (pgs. 354-374)
Is based on a system in which authority is legitimate because it "has always existed". People in power
usually enjoy it because they have inherited it. Officials consist either of personal retainers (in a patrimonial
regime) or of personal loyal allies, such as vassals or tributary lords (in a feudal regime). Their prerogatives
are usually similar to those of the ruler above them, just reduced in scale, and they too are often selected
based on inheritance.
Legal/Rational (pgs, 343-354)
Is based on a system of rules that is applied administratively and judicially in accordance with known
principles. The persons who administer those rules are appointed or elected by legal procedures. Superiors
are also subject to rules that limit their powers, separate their private lives from official duties and require
written documentation.
Charismatic (pgs, 374-389)
Is based on the charisma of the leader, who shows that he possesses the right to lead by virtue of magical
powers, prophecies, heroism, etc. His followers respect his right to lead because of his unique qualities (his
charisma), not because of any tradition or legal rules. Officials consist of those who have shown personal
devotion to the ruler, and of those who possess their own charisma. [The routinization of charisma.]