Politics

Power &
Authority
What is Politics?

What do you think of politics?

CLICKER: participation
Are you involved in politics?
A: yes
B: no
C:NO, NEVER !
D:Huh? What?
 What is Politics?
“The Master Science” Aristotle

“The process of peacefully

reconciling social and economic
differences” Turner et al

“Persistent patterns of human relationships

that involve a significant degree of control,
influence, power or authority.” Robert
Dahl
What is Power?
Is it evil?
Is it dictatorial?
Clicker:
Does it require force?
A. Yes: power is always based on
force
B. Power usually based on force
C. Power may or may not be
connected to force
D. Power definitely does not need
force
What is Power?

An aspect of a relationship between 2

social actors where one actor “A” can
induce or influence actor “B” to do
something in line with A's preferences
when B would not do that otherwise.
 Adapted from Robert Dahl
Sources of Power
David Easton:
Force
 Physical Violence or the credible threat thereof
(including incarceration)
 Not just angry or harsh words

Rewards
 Payment for good behavior
 Withholding benefits for bad behavior

Legitimacy (authority)
 Established moral right to rule
 Moral obligation for followers to obey
Sources of Power
Force
 Physical Violence or the
credible threat thereof
 Not just angry or harsh words

 Consequences of Force?
 Quick compliance
 Resentment and hostility
 Requires monitoring – Costly
 Generates revolt and
sabotage
 Unstable by itself
Sources of Power

Rewards
 Payment for good behavior
 Withholding benefits for bad behavior

 Consequences
 Compliance without hostility
 Costly, requires constant payoffs
 Requires monitoring
 Reward “inflation”
 Bankruptcy
Sources of Power
Legitimacy (authority)
 Established moral right to rule
 Moral obligation for followers to
obey

 Consequences
 Obedience without monitors
 Loyalty and respect
 Low cost to ruler
 Efficient and stable
Sources of Power
Legitimacy (authority)
Consequences Continued

Abuse of power
Followers become victims
Corruption

All these can undermine legitimacy in time

Sources of Power

REAL political groups use some combination

of Force, Rewards, and Legitimacy

Stable systems must have some element of

Legitimacy/Authority

Legitimacy/Authority, while effective and

stable, must be constrained to avoid abuse
Authority
(Legitimacy)
 Max Weber
 1864-1920 Germany
 The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism
 Sociology of Religion
 Economics
 Government
 Weber on Authority
3 Types
 Rational Legal
 Modern
 Based on rules and processes
 Bureaucracy
 Traditional
 Old Europe
 Inherited authority
 Charismatic
 Special, Personal, Revolutionary
 Based on individual leader’s special characteristics
 Rational Legal Authority

 Authority established through a process

 “Procedural Authority”
 Elections
 Government Hiring Processes
 Rules for decisions:
 Rules for a trial
 Rules and procedures to earn a degree
 Rules for law-making in Congress
 Rules for getting a marriage license, etc.
Rational Legal
Authority

 Authority is bounded
 Limited to a particular context
 Relationships are specific and
bounded
 Limited to a context
 Limited to a time
 Limited within specific range of action
Rational Legal Authority

 Strengths:
 Predictable
 Orderly
 Transparent
 All are equal
 Relatively little chance for abuse
 Protects subordinates’ rights
Rational Legal
Authority
 Problems:
 Slow
 Rigid and inflexible
 Impersonal
 Processes may overwhelm goals
 Stupid outcomes may result
 Quick obvious solutions blocked
Rational Legal Authority
 Typical of modern, democratic
governments

 Focuses on procedures more

than outcomes

 Emphasizes equality

 Both protects and frustrates

most citizens
Traditional
Authority
 Authority is inherited or simply is
 Leaders are leaders because they are:
 Divine right of Kings
 Village elders
 Inherited priesthood lineage (Old
Testament)
 Usually has patterns of inheritance
 Stable transitions
Traditional
Authority
 Authority is diffuse and unbounded
 No particular limits firmly established
 No time frame limitations
 Relationships are whole-person
 Leader not limited to particular aspects of life
 Leader may tread on “private” matters
 Relationships are reciprocal but asymmetrical
 Mutual obligations of benevolence and loyalty
Traditional Authority

 Potential Strengths:
 Stable and orderly
 Flexibility, not bound by excessive rules
 Generates strong positive associations
 “Right” doesn’t get blocked by process or rules
Traditional Authority

 Potential Problems
 “Right” seen only from leader’s perspective
 Fickle
 No way to remove incompetent leaders
 No room for exemplary talent to rise
 Unlimited or unrestrained power leaves potential
for abuse wide open
 Little room for the “individual”
Charismatic Authority

Charisma vs charisma
 Personal characteristics of leader
 Super-human
 Uniquely able to resolve grand problems
 The Charismatic leader IS the solution
 Special relation to deity? Sometimes
Charismatic Authority
 Followers believe leader to be infallible
 Leader can command ANYTHING
 Violate traditional values? OK
 Change everything, even beliefs? OK
 Do things I used to consider evil? OK

This is MORE than just a strong, dynamic

leader.
Weber’s CHARISMA
•Leader is super human
•Leader IS the answer to major
problems
•Leader demands MAJOR
change and gets it

newspaper
charisma
Charismatic Leaders
 Only recognizable if:
 Demand dramatic, life-altering changes
 Require followers to change dramatically
 Even doing things they previously
believed to be morally wrong
 Followers accept and follow those demands

 Some leaders may have this ability, but if

they don’t test it, we don’t know
Real Examples:

 Mao Tzedong
 Jim Jones
 Moses
 Christ
 Joseph Smith
 Adolph Hitler
Newspaper charisma but
NOT Weber’s CHARISMA
 John F Kennedy
 Mother Teresa
 Barack Obama
 Oprah Winfrey
 Ronald Reagan
How does it happen?
 Major crisis – either personal or societal

 Charismatic proposes DIAGNOSIS

 Diagnosis ‘rings true’ to potential followers

 Charismatic presents SOLUTION

 Solution relies on Charismatic’s ability
 Solution ‘will bring salvation,’ resolve problems
 Solution requires total obedience and major change

 Troubled people choose to follow – all the way

Charismatic Authority

 Potential Strengths
 Rapid change is possible
 Old, corrupt systems can be
overthrown
 A new world is possible
 May really solve major problems
Charismatic Authority
 Potential problems
 New world is worse than the old
 Leader is an idiot and everything crashes
 Grand Schemes are OK, but not details
 Leader abuses authority – followers victimized
 Transitions of authority very dicey
 Leaders usually very jealous of subordinate
leaders
 Leaders resist routinization
 Collapse at leader’s demise
Weber’s 3 Authority Types:
Review
 Rational legal
 Modern, procedures, limits, common in
democratic government
 Traditional
 Old monarchy, family, sometimes religion
 Charismatic
 Rare, Revolutionary, Leader is superhuman
and unlimited
What is Government?
Generic:
The system of offices that oversee and guide
the interactions of individuals in a political
system

The Government of a Country:

A government that successfully upholds a
claim to exercise the exclusive regulation of
the legitimate use of force in enforcing its
rules within a territorial area
Why Government
Thomas Hobbes
Human life in the state of nature is “nasty,
brutish and short.”

 Create Order
 Protect life
 Defend property rights
 Enforce contracts
The problem…

 How does a nation create a government

with enough authority and power to keep
order, protect property, and preserve life
and at the same time prevent that
government’s officials from using their
power to enrich themselves and
persecute their rivals?
Human nature and power
 Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely…

 “We have learned by sad experience that it is

the nature and disposition of almost all men, as
soon as they get a little authority, as they
suppose, they will immediately begin to
exercise unrighteous dominion.” D&C 121:39
American Solution
 Divide power
 3 branches
 Federal and States
 Check power with power
 Create a balance where each, by seeking his own
power checks the power of others
 Establish core rights and limits in the
Constitution
 Entrust enforcement of those limits to the self
interest of balancing powers