Understanding

Politics
S O C S C I 21 2 0 : F U N DA M E N TA L S O F P O L I T I C A L
SCIENCE
Question to Answer in this
Module
❑What is Politics?
❑What are the main approaches to the study of Politics?
❑What roles do concepts like power, legitimacy, and
authority play in political analysis?
❑What makes studying politics a science?
Political
Science
and
Other
Social
Sciences
What is Politics?
SA TINGIN MO BA, PARA ITO SA KAPAKANAN NG
NAKARARAMI O NG IILAN LANG?
 Concept vs. Conception
❑Concept: an Idea
✓Examples: democracy, power [you can limit its meaning by
identifying unique characteristics in its definition]

❑Conceptions: the manner by which concept

✓Example: democracy can be understood as a self-
government; or representative government
 Politics
❑The process by which people negotiate and compete in
the process of making and executing shared or collective
decisions
❑Politics is the activity through which people make,
preserve, and amend the general rules under which they
live (Heywood, 2019).
Two Major Problems in Understanding
the meaning of Politics (Heywood)

1. Mass associations that the word has when

used in everyday language
2. Respected authorities cannot agree what
the subject is about.
Two Major Problems in Understanding
the meaning of Politics (Heywood)

1. Mass associations that the word has when

used in everyday language
2. Respected authorities cannot agree what
the subject is about.
 Two Broad Approaches in
Defining Politics
1. Politics is associated with an area or location [behavior
becomes “political” because of where it happens
2. Politics is viewed as a process or mechanism [a
“political” behavior is a behavior that exhibits distinct
characteristics or qualities, so it can happen anywhere.
 Two Broad Approaches in
Defining Politics
1. Politics is associated with an area or location [behavior
becomes “political” because of where it happens
2. Politics is viewed as a process or mechanism [a
“political” behavior is a behavior that exhibits distinct
characteristics or qualities, so it can happen anywhere.
 Approaches to Defining Politics

Politics as an Arena Politics as a Process

Compromise and consensus

The art of government
Definition of Politics Power and the distribution of
Public Affairs
resources

Behaviouralism Feminism
Approaches to the Study of Politics Rational-choice Theory Marxism
Instituttionalism Post-positivist approaches
 Three Aspects of Politics
❑Conflict and cooperation
❑Three aspects of politics
1. Collective activity
2. Decisions affects more than one person
3. Political decision become authoritative policy for the group.
 Three Aspects of Politics
❑Conflict and cooperation
❑Three aspects of politics
1. Collective activity
2. Decisions affects more than one person
3. Political decision become authoritative policy for the group.
 Politics as the Art of Government
❑Politics----> government office
❑To study politics is to study government or to study the
exercise of authority
 1. Government vs. Governance
❑Government: focuses on institutions [the arena for
making and enforcing collective decisions]
❑Governance: focuses on the processes
 1. Government vs. Governance
❑Government: focuses on institutions and offices through
which societies are governed [the arena for making and
enforcing collective decisions]
✓People who govern [the Philippine government]
✓A specific administration [the Arroyo government]
✓Form of the system of rule [centralized government]
✓Nature and direction of the administration of a community [good government]
 1. Government vs. Governance
❑Government: focuses on institutions and offices through
which societies are governed [the arena for making and
enforcing collective decisions]
✓People who govern [the Philippine government]
✓A specific administration [the Arroyo government]
✓Form of the system of rule [centralized government]
✓Nature and direction of the administration of a community [good government]
 1. Government vs. Governance
❑Thomas Hobbes (1651)
The only way to erect such as common power, as may be able to
defend them from the invasion of foreigners, and the injuries of one
another… is, to confer a the power and strength upon one man, or
one assembly of men, that may reduce a their w s, by plurality of
voices, unto one w… is done, the multitude so united caed a
COMMONWEALTH”
❑CAVEAT: the government may abuse its authority
 1. Government vs. Governance
❑Governance: whole range of actors involved in the
government
:Process and quality of collective decision-
making (regulation)
 Political System
❑The interactions and organizations (including but not
limited through which a society reaches and successfully
enforces collective decisions
❑Interactions through which values are authoritatively
allocated for a society; that is what distinguishes a
political system from other systems lying in its
environments (Easton 1965).
 Authority
❑The rule implement the command as if they had
adopted its spontaneously for its own sake (Weber, 1922)
❑The right to rule
❑Creates its own power as long as people accept that the
person authority has the right to make decisions
❑Legitimate Power
 Politics as Public Affairs
❑Politics vs. Non-Political
❑“Public life vs. private life” / “the political” vs. “the personal”
❑On the basis of this “publics/private division, politics is restricted to
the activities of the state and the responsibilities that are properly
exercised by public bodies. Those areas of life that individuals and do
manage themselves (the economic, social, domestic, personal,
cultural, and artistic spheres, and so on) are therefore clearly “non-
political” (Heywood, 2019 p.40).
 Power
❑The ability to achieve a desired outcome: ‘power to’ do
something
❑[in politics] power is thought of as a relationship: the
ability to influence the behavior of others in a manner of
not choosing; “power over” people
 State, Authority, Legitimacy
❑State→ core guiding unit of comparison
❑Authority
❑Legitimacy
 Three Ways of Validating Power
(Weber 1922)
1. By tradition: accepted way of doing things
2. By charisma; an intense commitment to the leader and his
messages
3. By appeal to legal-rational norms : based on the rule-governed
powers of an office, rather than a person
 Legitimacy
❑Legality [technical matter] vs. legitimacy [political concept]
❑It is whether people accept the authority of the political system. A
legitimate system of government is one based on authority, and those
subject to its rule recognize its right to make decisions.
❑Tested on public opinion, not a law court
 Legitimacy
❑System of thought expressing a view on:
❑Human nature
❑The proper organization of, and relationship between state
and society
❑The individual’s position within this prescribed order
 Politics as Compromise and
Concensus
❑Politics as the “art of the possible”
❑Politics as a particular means of resolving conflict: by
compromise, conciliations, and negotiation
 Politics
❑The process by which people negotiate and compete in the process of
making and executing shared and collective decisions
❑Process of making and executing collective decisions
❑Activity by which different interests within a given unit of rule are conciliated
by giving them a share in power proportion to their importance to the welfare
and survival of the whole community (Crick, 2005).
❑“Who gets what, when, and how” (Laswell, 1936)
❑Politics as Competition → winners and losers
 Politics
❑“Pure conflicts is war. Pure cooperation is true love.
Politics is a mixture of both” (Laver, 1983”
 Politics as Power
❑Power is the heart of politics
❑“Production of intended effects” (Betrand Russell, 1938)
❑The capacity to bring about intended effects [generally :
influence] [power to]
❑ Getting one’s way by threat [narrow definition] [power
over]
 Dimensions of Power
Assessing Power Prroponent
Who prevails when preferences
First conflicts? Dahl (1957)
[power as decision-making]
Who controls whether preferences
Second are expressed? Bachrach and Baratz (1962)
[power as agenda setting]

Who shapes preferences

Third Lukes (1974)
[power as through control]

Sources: Steven Lukes (2005)