CHAPTER 1: EXERCISES

1. Concepts of Politics and Governance

- The country is a democracy, with a president elected directly by the citizens and
acting is elected directly by the citizens and acts as both the head of state and the
head of government. The president is the head of the executive branch and a major
political figure. A president may only serve one six-year term.

- In most dictionaries “government” and “governance” are interchangeably used,

both denoting the exercise of authority in an organization, institution or state.
Government is the name given to the entity exercising that authority. Authority
can most simply define as legitimate power. Whereas power is the ability to
influence the behavior of others, authority is the right to do so. Authority is
therefore the based on an acknowledged duty to obey rather than on any form of
coercion or manipulation. Weber distinguished between three kinds of authority,
based on the different grounds upon obedience can be established; traditional
authority is rooted in history, charismatic authority stems from personality and
legal-authority is grounded in a set of impersonal rules. To study government is to
study the exercise of authority. (Heywood, 1997) Government is closely related to
politics.

2. The importance of Politics

- To study politics is in essence to study government or more broadly, to study the
exercise of authority. Politics is the art of government, the exercise of control
within the society through the making and enforcement of collective decisions.
(Heywood 1997) The realm of politics is restricted to state actors who are
consciously motivated by ideological beliefs, and who seek to advance them
through membership of a formal organization such as a political organization.
This is the sense in which politicians are described as “political” whereas civil
servants are seen as “non-political”, the state as “public” and the civil society as
“private”. The institutions of the state (the apparatus of the government, the
courts, the police, the army, the society-security system and so forth) can be
regarded as “public” in the sense that they are responsible for the collective
organization of the community life. Moreover, they are funded at the public’s 7
expense, out of taxation. In contrast, civil society consists of what Raymund
Burke called the little platoons, institutions such as the family and kinship groups,
private businesses, trade unions, clubs, community groups and so on that are
private in the sense that they are set up and funded by individual citizens. On the
basis of this public/private life division, government is restricted to the activities
of the state itself and the responsibilities which are properly exercised by public
bodies. Although civil society can be distinguished from the state, it nevertheless
contains a range of institutions that are thought as “public” in a wider access.
3. Distinguish Political Science from other Sciences
- The social sciences investigate how people interact and relate to one another.
Political science, with its emphasis on political institutions and power distribution,
falls within this broad academic umbrella.

4. Distinguish Government and Governance

- Government is a group of people who rule or run the administration of a country.
In other words, it may be said that a government is the body of representatives that
governs and controls the state at a given time. Government is the medium through
which the power of the state is employed. But governance is the act of governing
or ruling. It is the set of rules and laws framed by the government that are to be
implemented through the representatives of the state. Simply put, governance is
what governments do.

5. Distinguish Government from Administration

- Governments are ephemeral political entities. The administration is a constant and
impartial organization. The idea is as follows. The hypothesis does not always
hold true in the real world, though. Some governments are unwilling to leave.
They desire a permanent throne. Certain governments have trouble grasping the
idea of a neutral administration. They want the administration to support the
political agenda of the government, and they may even dismiss administrators
who refuse to comply.
Traditions vary from nation to nation.