Lecture 1

Sovereignty
In broad terms, it is the highest decision-making authority. The concept was born in the 17 th century in
Europe.

 Legal Sovereignty (de jure)

 Sovereignty given by legal institutions of a state
 Supreme power defined in terms of law
 Political Sovereignty (de facto)
 Sovereignty in practice
 King Suleman has de jure sovereignty but Muhammad bin Suleman has de facto
sovereignty.
(A.V. Dicey)
 Internal Sovereignty
 Highest decision-making power in a state.
 It refers to the internal affairs of the state and the location of supreme power within it.
Internal Sovereign is a political body that possesses ultimate final and independent
authority, one whose decisions are binding upon all citizens, groups, and institutions in a
state.
 The monist/ absolute theory of sovereignty proposes that sovereignty should be vested in
one person.
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau challenged monist theory and proposed the concept of popular
sovereignty. According to this concept, the ultimate authority should be vested in people
(general will). It is the foundation of liberal democratic theories and provides the basis
for the American constitution.
 According to the concept of parliamentary sovereignty, sovereignty should be vested in
the legislative body of the state. This concept originated in the UK.
 External Sovereignty
 The state has independence in foreign affairs.
 External sovereignty refers to the sovereign independence of the state in relation to other
states.
 National Independence refers to the power or ability to make a decision for oneself
without influence from outside.
 Self-Government refers to the government under the control and direction of the
inhabitants of a political unit rather than by an outside authority
 Sovereignty breach
Power and Authority

 Power
 In very broad terms, power is about the ability to enforce compliance.
 If A gets B to do something A wants but which B would not have chosen to do, power is
being exercised by A.
 Violence
 Threat
 Force
 Three faces of power
  Power as decision makings refers to the ability to influence the making of
decisions.
 Power as agenda setting refers to the capacity to shape political agenda.
 Power as thought control refers to controlling people's thoughts by manipulation
of their performance and perceptions.
 Power as decision making
 Who gets their way and how often they get their way?
 Institutions of state and media
 Power as agenda-setting
 The area of non-decision making is power as agenda-setting.
 To the extent that a person or group—consciously or unconsciously—creates or
reinforces barriers to the public airing of policy conflicts, that person or group
has power.
 Control on media
 Power as thought control
 The ability of A to exercise power over B, not by getting B to do what he would
not otherwise do, but by influencing, shaping, or determining his very wants.
 North Korean totalitarian dictatorship
 Brainwash such as terrorist
 Authority
 Power brings about compliance through persuasion, violence, pressure, forces, or
coercion. Authority is based on the perceived right to enforce compliance. It has a moral
character. One has the moral obligation to obey.
 State authority
 Legally binding
 Sociologist Max Weber provided three types of authority (or leadership).
 Traditional Authority
o The authority of an organization or a ruling regime is largely tied to
tradition or custom.
o Father in family
 Charismatic Authority
o The authority derives from the charisma of the leader. It is based on
personality or some personal trait.
 Rational-legal Authority
o The authority of an organization or a ruling regime is largely tied to legal
rationality, legal legitimacy, and bureaucracy. It is based on law.
 De Jure Authority
 Authority given by laws or customs (customary laws)
 It operated through a set of procedures and rules.
 Traditional and rational-legal authority
 De Facto Authority
 Authority not derived from law
 Authority obtained by expertise and charisma
Lecture 2
Rights
Rights refer to an entitlement to act or be treated in a particular way.

 Legal Rights
 Legal rights are rights that are laid down in law.
 Four types of legal rights
 Privileges or Liberty rights: It encloses anything not prohibited by law, such a
teaching in a university. A liberty right is a right which does not entail
obligations on other parties, but rather only freedom or permission for the right-
holder.
 Claim Rights: There are rights on the basis of which one person has a duty to the
other, such as right to not get assaulted. These rights entail responsibilities,
duties, or obligations on other parties regarding the right-holder
 Political Rights: Political rights are those basic rights which allow an individual
to participate directly or indirectly in the political activities of the state, such as
the right to vote, the right to be elected, etc.
 Immunity: A person enjoys immunity if he/she is not subject to powers of others,
such as immunity to not get asserted without arrest warrant.
 Bill of Rights (first amendment) in American constitution is a prime example of legal
rights.
 Right to education became legal right after 18th amendment in Pakistani constitution.
 Moral Rights
 Moral rights are rights which only exist as moral and philosophical claims but have no
legal substance. Example is a freely and rationally made promise. Moral rights are very
vague, such as child’s right to ‘proper’ rearing.
 Negative Rights
 Negative rights are enjoyed only if constraints are placed on others, such as right to life
forbids other to kill and right to property forbids others to occupy the property.
 Positive Rights
 A positive right is an obligation by others to provide some benefit to the rights holder.
Government’s intervention or active participation for betterment of social-economic
conditions, such as providing affordable healthcare, of poor is a classic example.
 Human Rights or Fundamental Rights
 Human rights are rights to which people are entitled by virtue of human being, such as
right to life. These rights are universal, fundamental and inalienable. They exist
everywhere and in all circumstances.
 John Locke (theory of natural rights)
 Right to life
 Right to liberty
 Right to property
 “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (United States Declaration of Independence
drafted by Thomas Jefferson)
 What is meaning of human in ‘human rights’? (Abortion debate)
Duty
Duty is a requirement to act in a particular way. A right for someone is a duty for other or others.

 Legal Duties
  A legal duty is an act the opposite of which is a legal wrong, such as paying taxes.
 Moral Duties
 Moral duties are those obligations which we ‘should’ observe but we are not legally
bound to observe them, such as duty to keep promise.
 Political Duties
 Political duty is a duty to acknowledge the authority of the state and abide by its laws.
 Legal is a bigger domain than political.
Freedom

 Negative Concept of Freedom

 It is the freedom to do something, freedom to not get obstructed. It imposes restriction on
others.
 Positive Concept of Freedom
 It is freedom from something. It is largely concerned with self-realization. Examples
include freedom from poverty and oppression.
(Isaiah Berlin)

 In its simplest form, freedom means to do as one wished or act as one chooses. But absolute
freedom results in violence and disorders the society.
 In France, freedom of speech allows to criticize prophets but does not allow to defend Holocaust.
 At what point liberty (freedom) transgresses? John Stuart Mill argued that one should not forbid
anyone unless he or she causing ‘harm’ to others. But the meaning of harm is contested; it could
be physical harm, moral harm, religious harm, etc.
 Self-regarding actions
 Other-regarding actions
Equality

 Formal Equality
 It is the earliest notion of equality. It means that all persons are equal by virtue of being
human. Therefore, all should have equal rights.
 Equality of Opportunity
 It refers to the removal of obstacles that stand on the way of personal development and
self-realization. All must commence the race from the same point and at the same time.
 Equality of Outcome
 Equality of outcome attempts to ensure that everyone finishes at the same time.
Lecture 3
Nature and Emergence of Modern Nation-State

 Elements of State
 Population (permanent)
 Territory (well-defined boundary)
 Government (may not be effective)
 Sovereignty (external which means freedom to indulge in foreign affairs)
 Theories of State
 Social Contract Theory
  Evolutionary Theory
 Theory of Force
Social Contract Theory
 Divine right theory propounded that kings have right to rule because their disobedience is
God’s disobedience. Social contract theory rejected divine rights and based authority of
state on an agreement.
 It refers to the idea of agreement as the beginning of the organization of political society.
 In divine right theory, there were no obligations on ruler. Agreement itself means some
obligations for all the parties involved.
 Main proponents of this theory are Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. To understand the
foundation of state, they thought of a pre-state society, called state of nature, where there
was no government.
 Thomas Hobbes
 Hobbes’s state of nature was that war against all. Life was nasty, brutish, and short. To
preserve the life of individuals and inhibit war, central authority was necessary. Hobbes
called this central authority Leviathan. According to him, it is only possible if authority is
absolute.
 Major concern of Hobbes is self-preservation.
 John Locke
 He argued that state of nature is not a state of war because human beings were rational
and therefore, would refrain from killing each other.
 Then, why do we require state if there is no war? In the state of nature, there is no central
authority to resolve disputes. Resolution of disputes necessitated institutions, which are
essential for advancement of society.
 Rousseau
 He argued that modern society is corrupt because it is unequal. So, we must go back to
the state of nature to construct a better notion of social contract.
 In former theories, contracts were of submission to a state, but Rousseau’s contract was
that of association.
 His purpose was to allow association or law-making while keeping individual freedom.
The solution was to give rights to each other rather than state. In such an arrangement, no
one has lost anything since all gave their rights to others.
 Hobbes sought security; Locke desired advancement of society; and Rousseau’s end is
freedom.
 Since everyone is surrendering one’s right to all other individuals, one is surrendering to
society in a whole. Collectivity, referred as general will, is always right because it is sum
total of consensus and disputes of all individuals of society. Even if one disagrees,
general will is one’s will.
Evolutionary Theory
The state is a product of historical growth. Several factors played important rule along the course of
development.

 Kinship or Family
 It is the earliest form of society. Marriages united many families thus making a clan.
Clans chose tribal leaders to manage its affairs. These tribal leaders got military, judicial
 and something religious powers. Customs were laws for a clan. Clans occupied particular
territories and thus, establishing a king of government.
 The state was formed when authority of tribal leaders transformed into government, and
customs got codified as laws.
 Tribal society is personal not territorial. It means that authority in such societies is based
on kindship not territory.
 Religion
 Religion was a tool in hands of the chief to control society through obedience. Ancestral
worship was one form of religion prevailing in such societies.
 Political Consciousness
 Increase in population and expansion of tribes made life complex necessitating the
existence of an organization to ensure order and security.
 Territorial expansion led to hostiles among tribes. Territorial conquest was a source of
food supply and land to live. Expansion soon took the form of vast kingdoms and
empires. Then, emerged the political consciousness which led to the stratification of
society.
Theory of Force
The state is the product of aggression, war, conquest, and subjugation. At all levels force paved the way
for power. State’s emergence, existence, and survival is based on force.
Pre-state Communities

 Tribes without Rulers

 Mostly nomadic or semi-nomadic
 Hierarchy based on kinship
 Patriarchal
 Mostly egalitarian (no one was very rich)
 No standing army
 Chiefdoms
 Tribes with rulers
 Divinely ordained authority
 Hereditary rule (divine right inherited)
 Nobility and Commoner
 Nobility mainly consisted of relatives of ruler. They had privileges, especially of
accesses to the ruler.
 City-State
 Some areas ruled by chiefs and some capitals are sometimes referred as city-states.
 The most important self-governing political bodies were Greek city-states, such as
Athens (democratic) and Sparta (militaristic). These city-states were mostly self-
sufficient and isolated.
 Rise of Empires
 Most of the time of history, human beings have lived in empires.
 The biggest empire of the world was Roman Empire. Decline of Roman Empire started in
476AD.
After the Fall of Roman Empire in 15th Century
  Empires
 The empires sustained themselves on the basis of
 Coercive means
 Ability to make wealth (skills and technology)
 Accumulation of wealth (used for expansionist purposes)
 All empires were expansionist. Territorial expansion led to weak administration which
culminated in conflicts and rebellions.
 Feudalism
 Feudalism is defined as “network of interlocking ties with a fragmented system of rule”.
 Distinguish character of feudalism is absence of central authority or sovereign. The
authority exercised by rulers was mostly personalized (charismatic) or traditional
authority.
 Overlapping claims, especially over territories, led to clash because there was no central
authority to mediate.
 Jagirs were given to maintain loyalty.
 Absolutism
 It refers to supreme autocratic powers of the monarch.
 It has origin in feudalism.
 Divine rights were again used to perpetuate authority.
 Powerful feudal lords assimilated their weak counterparts and imposed strict system of
law to maintain tranquility. These developments gave rise to the concept of central
system of power. When such strong central systems of power came in clash with each
other, the rulers preferred, at least on occasions, not to interfere in each other’s territory
and affairs. Thus, the concept of sovereignty emerged.
 Modern Nation-State
 It is based on the concept of sovereignty.
 The word ‘modern’ refers to political values which emerged after English Revolution
(1642) and French Revolution (1789).
 These revolutions have liberal character. The main focus was rights of people to vote.
Lecture 4
Political Culture

 “The concept of political culture refers to political attitudes and behavioral patterns of
population.”
 Parochial Political Culture
 Citizens are only indistinctly aware of the existence of central government.
 Such political culture was prevalent in traditional societies, which were based on
traditional authority.
 Subject Political Culture
 Citizens see themselves not as participants in the political process but as subjects
of the government.
 Such political culture is found in absolute monarchies.
 Participant Political Culture
 Citizens believe both that they can contribute to the system and that they are
affected by it.
 Transformation from subject to citizen.
  Such political cultures are found in countries with inchoate democracies.
Singapore can be an example where political culture is somewhat between
democratic and dictatorial.
 Civic Political Culture
 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.
 Such culture is found in modern liberal democracies, such as the USA.
 Citizens are political empowered, and they trust the system.
 Every state has its own political culture. American political culture is based on democratic values,
such as freedom and individualism. Americans have internalized these values and may rebel if
deprived of these values. Pakistan’s political culture appreciates authority, and therefore, role of
feudalism and state institutions have been paramount throughout Pakistan’s history.
Political Participation

 “Citizens participate in political life in order to convey their preferences to decision makers.”
 Methods are participation have very wide range. Some of them are
 Election
 Referendum
 Demonstrations
 Pressure Groups
Political Development

 “Political development, in essence, means to break the traditional monopoly of power.”

 Politicization refers to the process of becoming or being made politically aware.
Lecture 5
Political Socialization

 “Political socialization is a process whereby individual learns from various groups and agencies
about the society in which he/she lives.”
 It refers to people expectations to political system.
 Latent PS
 Family
 Early education
 Manifest PS
 Educational System
 Media
 Universalistic PS
 It refers to ideas and practices, such as freedom and individualism, that can be
applied everywhere without modification. Such political socialization is found in
advanced western democracies.
 Particularistic PS
 It refers to the belief that circumstances dictate how ideas and practices should be
applied. Such political socialization is parochial. It is usually found in tribal
system and non-democratic states.
Public Opinion

 In ancient time, public opinion was manifested in form of rebellion, refusal to pay tax, and
information collected by secret police.
 Methods of knowing public opinion
 Informal Method
 Formal Method
 Informal Methods
 Election
 Interest groups (trade union, media groups, etc.) and lobbies
 Media
 Protests
 Letters or calls to MPs
 Opinion polls
 Formal Methods include different types of surveys conducted in systematic manner.
 Face to face interviews
 Telephonic interviews
 Random call interviews
 Mailing surveys
Interest Groups and Pressure Group

 They have some autonomy. They tend to influence public policy and links state and society.
 Maneuver public opinion to influence public policy.
 Influence political parties
 Lobbyist are hired for this purpose. They are professionals in influencing people and have
strong connections.
 Lobbyist have major rule in American political system.
 National Rifle Association is example of interest group.
Political Parties

 “Any political group identified by an official label that presents itself at elections and is capable
of placing, through elections, candidates for public office.”
 Give direction to government or state policy.
 Provides law makers (Political Requitement)
 Presents demands of different factions
 Give people lens to address any particular issue.
Party System

 Dominant Party System

 One party dominates either constitutional or electorally
 (Singapore and China)
 Two Party System
 In political arena, mainly two parties contest for power.
 (US and UK)
 Multi-party System (Pakistan, India, Switzerland)
 Many parties contest for power and governments are often formed through coalitions.
  Pakistan, India, Switzerland
Electoral Systems

 Plurality System
 Proportional Representation