UNDERSTANDING CULTURE, SOCIETY AND POLITICS

QUARTER 2- Political and Leadership Structures

According to Max Weber as cited by Santarita & Madrid, 2016, Political structure or institution is
defined as the organized way in which power is allocated and decisions are made within society. Below is the
organizational chart of the Philippine Government.

The Executive branch is comprised of the President and the Vice President who are chosen by direct
popular vote and fulfill a term of six years. The Constitution grants the President authority to appoint his
Cabinet. These departments form a large portion of the country’s bureaucracy.
The Legislative branch can make laws, alter, and reverse them through the power bestowed in the
Philippine Congress. This institution is divided into the Senate and the House of Representatives
The Judicial branch maintains the power to resolve disputes concerning rights that are legally
demandable and enforceable. This branch decides whether there has been a serious abuse of judgment
amounting to lack or excess of authority on the part and instrumentality of the government. It is made up of a
Supreme Court and lower courts.
The Constitution explicitly permits the Supreme Court the power of Judicial Review as the power to
declare a treaty, international or executive agreement, law, presidential decree, proclamation, order, instruction,
ordinance, or regulation unconstitutional.

Power on the other hand is the capacity to realize desired ends despite opposition from others. The
utilization of power is the business of government, which is defined as a formal organization that directs the
political life of a society (Macionis, 2012) Therefore, governments demand compliance on the part of a
population.
 According to Macionis (2012) “No government, Weber explained, is likely to keep its power for long if
compliance comes only from the threat of brute force. Even the most brutal dictator must wonder if there can
ever be enough police to watch everyone—and who would watch the police? Every government, therefore, tries
to make itself seem legitimate in the eyes of the people. This fact brings us to Weber’s concept of authority, a
power that people perceive as legitimate rather than coercive” (p.394)
TYPES OF AUTHORITY
1) Traditional Authority-respect for a long-standing cultural pattern is used to legitimize power.
a) Monarchy
 In a monarchy, the monarch is the head of the state and in most cases this position is
hereditary. In the middle ages, most monarchs claimed a divine right to rule, basing their
authority on a divine command from God.
 Queen Elizabeth II is an example of a contemporary titular monarch, enjoying a largely
ceremonial role in all of her fifteen Commonwealth realms.
 Saudi Arabia, the State of Qatar, Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, the
Kingdom of Bhutan are some examples of strong contemporary monarchies where the king
has relatively greater control over the state machinery.
b) Patriarchy
 Patriarchy is a system in which a social unit is governed by the eldest male or the male head
of the unit.
 For instance, we can see the centrality of the masculine in the use of the male pronoun
“his/him/he” to refer even to a gender-neutral situation. This has become such an ingrained
habit that it appears almost naturally to most people.
 Similarly, the conception of God as male, referring to God with male pronouns is also an
almost universal subconscious social trait.
c) Patrimonialism
 Patrimonialism is a form of government in which the distinction between the public and
the private domains is blurred, with all public property being treated as an extension of
the ruler’s household.
 Stalinist Russia is commonly cited as an example of patrimonialism. Similarly, we see
this in Cuban communism where people were not allowed to own property for a long
time and, to this day, in North Korea.
 Patrimonialism is an extension of the patriarchal system, wherein household
administration is expanded to form government systems. The leader enjoys absolute
power and the officials treat their service as personal loyalty to the leader, being
appointed not so much for their capabilities, but on the leader’s whims.
d) Feudalism
 Under feudalism, a form of traditional economy existed wherein land grants were given
to individuals in return for military service or labor.
 Feudalism and patrimonialism are similar in the sense that both systems have a powerful
ruler who grants rights and in return gets military and administrative services. In
feudalism, however, the patrimonial relationship is replaced with a contract of allegiance
based on knightly militarism.
e) Hereditary Dictatorship
  A hereditary dictatorship is a system of government where the position of the dictator is
passed down within a family, usually from father to son.
 While a monarchy, where the King or Queen is succeeded by their child, may be an
example, the term hereditary dictatorship is usually reserved for dictatorships where the
leader does not claim nobility.
 The quintessential example is North Korea and the Kim Dynasty. The Kim Dynasty has
been in power since 1948, when the country was founded, and shows no signs of abating.
 The current leader, Kim Jong-un, is the third generation of the dynasty to rule.
 Hereditary dictatorship is a combination of the patrimonial and the feudal system, where
the position of ruler is passed down within a family, and the ruler has absolute power.
f) Religion
 Few other institutions command a degree of authority so great over the lives of
individuals as religion does.
 For the vast majority of people in the world, religion dictates what they eat, how they
dress, where they live, who they marry, and more, down to the very minutiae of how
every hour in a day is to be spent.
g) Racial Superiority
 For much of human history, race was used as a basis for establishing the dominance of
one group over another.
h) Caste Systems
 A caste is a system of social organization practiced among Hindus, Sikhs, and other
religious denominations in India in which society is stratified into a number of hereditary
exogamous groups.
 Members of lower castes often face discrimination from those of the higher castes. Often,
people are expected to marry within their castes, can only get jobs within their castes, and
are restricted from leadership positions due to their caste status.
i) Tribal Organization
 Tribalism is a form of social organization in which society is divided into groups
members of which share a common feature, usually descent from a common ancestor.
 Tribes continue to be the major form of social organization in several parts of the world,
for instance in Nigeria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of India, where tribal
chiefs, as hereditary leaders of their communities, act as intermediaries between the
members of the tribe, and the bureaucratic state.
2) Rational-Legal Authority or also known as bureaucratic authority; legally created rules and
regulations are used to legitimize power.
a) The Modern Democratic Nation-State
 exercises rational-legal authority by employing bureaucrats to monitor the movement
of money (i.e. tax agencies), passing laws, and operating a judiciary system.
b) The Capitalist Firm
 Large firms would create their own bureaucracies to manage their workforces and seek
productivity gains.
c) Immigration
 Anyone who has gone through the rigors of immigration, or even simply attempted to
cross national borders would be familiar with the layers of red tape that need to be
negotiated in order to get a visa. The immigration officer is a specialist in his or her
 field, trained to implement all the procedures laid down by the law to ensure a rational
movement of citizenry across the borders.
d) The Judicial System
 The system is administered by a highly specialized cadre of judges and lawyers who
undergo years of rigorous training, and in many countries, have to pass a qualifying
exam to become eligible to pass the law.
 The law is also based heavily on writing and recording of everything – evidence,
statements, court judgments – as the written text is a more authoritative source to
reason from, than oral texts.
 Finally, this combination of rational-legal authority appears as an intimidating monolith
to the common citizen standing before a court of law, overwhelmed by its complexity.
e) Licenses And Permits
 We need licenses and permits for a number of things. This allows the government to
control our behavior, improve safety, and create minimum standards across all domains
of life.
f) The Financial System
 The modern banking and financial system are highly complex. It operates through a
cadre of specialized finance professionals such as certified public accountants, certified
financial analysts, investment bankers, and so on.
g) The Three Levels Of Government
 Many national governments are organized into three tiers: local, state, and federal.
 The federal government is responsible for national issues such as defense, diplomacy,
and taxation. State governments are responsible for matters such as education and
public safety. Local governments are responsible for issues such as sanitation and
building codes.
h) The Three Branches Of Government
 In many countries, the government is organized into three branches: the executive, the
legislature, and the judiciary.
i) The Military
 The military is a highly centralized organization with a clear chain of command. It is
organized around the principle of hierarchical authority, with each level of command
having a clear set of responsibilities.
 The military is also a highly knowledge-based organization. It relies on advanced
technology and training to achieve its objectives.
3) Charismatic Authority-extraordinary personal skills that inspire devotion and obedience are used to
legitimize power.The word charisma derives etymologically from the Greek word Kharis which means “grace”
and “that which is freely given”.
Examples Of Charismatic Authority
a) Jesus ChristJesus Christ’s life was extraordinary, as is to be expected of the founder of the world’s
largest religion.
b) Napoleon BonaparteNapoleon Bonaparte was a French military leader who is regarded as one of the
foremost generals and empire builders in history.
c) Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler is probably the most notorious public figure in history, but a figure who
embodies the power of charismatic authority. During his meteoric rise in inter-war Germany, Hitler
 rose from near anonymity as an ordinary soldier to command the impassioned loyalty of a section of
the German population. He achieved this through the force of his personality.
d) Charles De GaulleA French officer who led France against the Nazis, and later became the President
of France and one of its most popular leaders.De Gaulle’s popularity in France was drawn from his
heroic persona as a highly decorated French soldier who was grievously wounded several times in
battle, spent several years in prison as a German prisoner of war, and yet each time returned to lead
France, bestowing upon him a superhuman aura.
e) Lenin & StalinBoth Lenin and Stalin were leaders of the Soviet Union who were able to command
vast, almost unrestrained power over the lives of millions through the force of their charismatic
personalities.
f) Nietzschean Ubermensch Stepping away from specific, individual-centric instances, we now look at
more abstract, philosophical formulations of the concept of charismatic authority
g) Plato’s Philosopher KingThe Greek philosopher Plato, in his much celebrated work The Republic
argues that the ideal form of political organization of human society is one in which society is ruled by
a philosopher-king.
h) Randian HeroesRand’s philosophy is characterized as objectivism, its central tenet being that man is a
heroic being who is bound by no other ties except the attainment of his own happiness and the pursuit
of productive activities.
i) Anti-Colonial Leaders (E.G Nelson Mandela)The struggle against colonialism in much of Africa and
Asia was led by figures who were able to command the support of the masses against the power of the
colonial state.
j) Saddam Hussein And Muammar QaddafiBoth Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi were
charismatic leaders who espoused ideologically similar ideals of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism
in their respective nations, Iraq and Libya.

Economic Institutions
Human beings are driven to satisfy their basic necessity which includes food, water and shelter however
human beings also aim for goods and services which can be attained through help from the many or known as
collective effort (Santarita & Madrid, 2016) This make economic activity essential in Human’s life because it
can influence the complexity of society and the character of its cultural and social life.
Imagine if there is an alteration or change in the means of production as well as the redistribution and
exchanges of deliverables or services, it can strongly affect the overall functioning of society. For instance, the
continuous increase in price in a petrol can also have a massive effect on the price of goods such as fruits and
vegetables for the supplier must also take into consideration petrol and its market value because they will be
using petrol for transportation of fruits and vegetables. This scenario might result in a possible change of market
value among the above-mentioned products.23
Gilliard et al., (2000) argued that an economic institution is being defined as an enduring organization,
practice, or relationship created by individuals to handle and cope with basic economic dilemmas.
Now that we established the definition and importance of economic institutions, let us now discuss the
forms of redistribution and exchange of products. Read and carefully analyze the table and graphic organizer
below because these might help you to better understand the subject matter.
Table 1. Forms of Redistribution and Exchange of Products

Forms Meaning Examples

1. RECIPROCITY ➢ Transaction between two
socially equal parties having the
same status with regards to
values of goods or services.
➢ The dowry given by a Muslim
groom to his prospective bride is a
transaction between two socially
equal parties having the same
status with regards to values of
goods or services. Tantamount to
the wealth and educational
attainment possessed by the latter.

➢ In the Philippines, most often

Types of Reciprocity
1.1 GENERALIZED RECIPROCITY
than not, the eldest child expresses
➢ A form of transaction which generalized reciprocity to his or
utilizes gestures that expresses her family by graduating, and in
personal relationships than exchange, they will be providing
economic transactions. means to sustain the academic
needs of their other siblings.

➢ One good example is the

1.2 BALANCED RECIPROCITY
1.3 NEGATIVE RECIPROCITY
business transaction between
Filipino artists and advertisement
companies. Artists will perform
➢ In this form of transaction,
activities that are required of him
the giver is expected to gain
or her by the said advertisement
something in return although it
company in exchange for publicity
does not have to be given
and exposure.
instantly.
➢ Example business ventures
offered to you by persons you do
not have a personal relationship
This transaction is being with.
practiced using deceiving ways
to gain profit. In this form of
transaction, individuals involved
try to gain as much as
conceivable while paying the
least amount possible

2. REDISTRIBUTION ➢ The process by which ➢ Taxes are collected from

products produced out from the individuals based on their income.
community is sent to a place The money collected is distributed
where they are stored, counted, to other members of society
and later distributed back to the through different government
 people. programs.
➢ It is usually the leader of the ➢ Charitable donation functions
community who oversees the similarly.
process. (Santarita & Madrid,
2016)The said authority may be
a single individual, (e.g., a chief,
or a group of people, or temple
priests)
➢ The central authority uses the
distribution of goods and
services to generate
interdependence between the
parties involved.

3. MARKET EXCHANGE The price of the transactions of ➢ A transaction that uses money
deliverables and services are in exchange for goods or services.
supposedly governed by the
rules of supply and demand.