Politics: Introduction to Politics

Different views of politics:

- the affairs of the polis; what concerns the polis; what concerns state

- Politics takes place within a polity: a system of organisation centered upon

the machinery of the government/ cabinet, legislative chambers

- 3 states of governance: influenced by each other

- local

- national

- provincial

- 3 government branches

- judicial

- legislative

- executive

- Federal state: relatives degree of tolerance

is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or

regions under a central (federal) government.

- Unitary: (South Africa) s a sovereign state governed as a single entity. The

central government is supreme, and the administrative divisions exercise only
powers that the central government has delegated to them.

*influence of election

*state(formal structure) vs government

- Civil society: public sphere occupied by the institutions that are ‘private’ i.e
independent from the government and organized by individuals in pursuit of
their own ends

*PAIA

* A realm of autonomous groups and associations: business, interest groups

* Politics: a means of resolving conflict: by compromise, conciliation and

negotiation.

* Politics is reaching consensus

* Conciliated by giving them a share in power in proportion to their importance

to the welfare and survival of the whole community

Politics as power:

* power as decision making

- Conscious actions that in some way influence that content of decision

1. Use of force or intimidation (the stick)

2. Productive exchanges involving mutual gain(the deal/compromise)

3. Creation of obligation, loyalty and commitment (the kiss)

*The force of power is everywhere, in all aspects and content of life

Power as agenda-setting:

to influence the importance placed on the topics of the public agenda". ... That is,
if a news item is covered frequently and prominently, the audience will regard the
issue as more important.
- ability to prevent decisions being made

- The ability to set or control the political agenda, thereby preventing issues or
proposals being aired in the first place

Power as thought control:

- the ability to influence another by shaping what he or she thinks, wants, or

needs.

- Power expressed as ideological indoctrination psychological control

- Ability of advertising to share consumer tastes, often by cultivating

associations with a “brand”

- Political life: use of propaganda and in the impact of ideology

Types/ Families of Theoretical Explanation in Political Science:

1. Functionalist

2. Structuralist

3. Culturalist

4. Rational choice

5. Institutional

6. Power.

3. Culturalist:

- Social outcomes are the result of the dominant ideas and norms. The
maintenance of political system depends not so much on how it fulfills
functions but the congruence between the culture and the institutions

- What constitutes of behavior

- Gabriel Almond & Sydney Verba. The Civic Culture Political Attitudes
and Democracy in Five Nations 1963
- Ronald Inglehart & Christian Wetzel, Modernization Culture Change and
Democracy: The Human Development Sequence, 2005
4. Rational Choice:

- Assumes decision makers have full knowledge, can rank the utility of
different outcomes, able to calculate the probability of realizing those
outcomes and choose accordingly. Thus, social outcomes sharped by
preferences that are bounded by larger structure of (dis) incentives

- Rational choice can be objective

*pro-life and pro-choice

- Anthony Downs

5. Institutionalist:

- Political (and even economic) outcomes are largely shaped by how the
incentives and disincentives created by the design go political
institution

- Political outcomes and economic outcomes largely shaped by the

organization of the state, particularly with respect to competence,
autonomy, professionalization

6. Power:

- Political outcomes can best be explained by the human need to acquire

power, either for it own sake, to control the humans, or to acquire other
valued goods.

Theories of a state:

1. Theories of the origins of the state

1.1 The theory of the Divine Origin

1.2 The theory of Force

1.3 The theory of Social Contract

Background:

- There is an abundant literature on the subject of the states and its

origin.

- Academic approaches to the theory of the state ask: How, which, or

what was the first state and how it first existed?

- 4 aspects relate to the origins of the state:

1. Aspects of biology

2. Aspects of economy/ in form of transactions

3. Aspect of culture

4. Aspect of military

The Theory of the Divine Origin:

- The State, its advocates maintain, was created by God and governed by
His deputy or vicegerent.

- He(God) sent His deputy to rule over them.

- The ruler was a divinely appointed agent and he was responsible for his
actions to God alone.

- As the ruler was deputy of God, obedience to himwacs held to be a

religious duty and resistance a sin.

- Nobody could limit his will and restrict his power.

- His word is law and his actions were always just and benevolent.

- To complain against the authority of the ruler and to characterize his

actions as unjust was a sin for which there was divine punishment.

- This theory is so enunciated, believed in and accepted thus, implied:

1. That God deliberately created the state and this specific act of his
grace was to save mankind from destruction

2. God sent his deputy or Vice-regent to rule over mankind.

Example;

- Monarchy is divinely ordained and the King/Queen draws his/her

authority from God.

- Monarchy is heredity and it is the divine right of a King/Queen that it

should pass from father/mother to son/daughter.

- The King/Queen is answerable to God alone.

- Resistance to the lawful authority of a King/Queen is a sin

The Theory of Force:

- Emphasises the origin of the state in the subordination of the weak to

the strong.

- A person physically stronger captured and enslaved the weak.

- Having increased the numbers of his followers, over whom he exercised

undisputed authority, he became a tribal chief.

- The powerful conquered the weak- this process of conquest and

domination continued until the victorious tribe secured control over a
definite territory.

Implications of the theory of Force:

- Force is not only historical factor, but is the essential feature of the
state.

- States were born of force only.

- Power is their justification and raison d’être.

- The maintenance and extension of power within and without is the sole
aim of the state.

The theory of Social Contract:

- Argument: individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to

surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the ruler
in exchange for protections of their remaining rights

- The starting point for most social contract theories is an examination of

the human conditions absent any political order;

- in this condition, individuals’ actions are bound only by their personal

power and conscience.

- social contract theorist seek to demonstrate why a rationale individual

would voluntarily consent to give up their natural freedom to obtain the
benefits of political order.

2 arguments:

1.

- in the absence of political order and law; everyone would have unlimited
natural freedoms; there would be an endless “war of all against all”

- To avoid this, people contract with each other to establish political

community, i.e Civil society through a social contract in which they all
gain security in return for subjecting themselves to an absolute
sovereign

- Humans consent to abdicate their rights in favor of the absolute

authority of the government (whether monarchical or parliamentary)

Ctd.

2.

- We gain civil rights in return for accepting the obligation to respect and
defend the rights of others, giving up some freedoms to do so.

- Law and political order are not natural, but are instead human creations.

- The social contract and the political order it creates are simply the
means towards an end - the benefit of the individuals involved - and
legitimate only to the extent that they fulfill there part of the agreement.

- When the government falls to secure their natural rights or satisfy the
best interest of society, citizens can withdraw their obligations to obey,
or change the leadership through elections or other means including,
when necessary, violence.