POG 100: Introduction to Politics and

Governance, Section 1/2/3/4

F2007

September 18 2007
 September 18 2007
• Review: Studying Politics
• Discussion: A Force More Powerful
• Human Nature
• Political Power
• Political regimes
 Review: Political Science
• Empirical analysis - explaining various aspects of
politics using the scientific method of observation and
comparison to develop generalizations and theories
• Normative Analysis: examining ideas about how
societies should be governed
• Policy Analysis: Evaluating existing policies and
identifying what policies should be adopted to particular
problems
• Comparative Analysis: examining similarities and
differences between political processes, structures and
institutions in different political communities
 Review: What is Politics
strugglesconflicting interests

‘art and science of government’authoritative allocation of values’

who gets what why and how?Harold Laswell

art of the possible

 Review: Governance
• Governance is concerned with the organization of power to achieve collective ends.

• Simply put "governance" means: the process of political decision-making and the
process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented).

• Governance in common usage is applied to nation-state:

– national governance; community: local governance; business: corporate governance; global:
international governance.

• Since governance is the process of decision-making and the process by

which decisions are implemented, an analysis of governance focuses on
processes that are:
– formal
– informal
• It also focuses on actors involved in decision-making and implementing the
decisions made
• the formal and informal structures in place to arrive at and implement the
decision.
 Review: Politics and governance
• People govern themselves in a variety of ways.
– In some cases, as in Canada, people have various levels of
governance and formal governments – federal, provincial,
municipal, community, self-government.
– In others, it is through kingdoms or fiefdoms.
– There are also unitary and federal governmental arrangements
• All these institutions engage in a process of rule making
• Rule making determines the conduct of life for the
members of society and provides them with identity,
belonging and a sense of purpose in life.
• Informal processes of governance occur outside of the
structures of government, such as those in what we call
civil society, the social sector, in religious institutions.
 Governance and policy making

a course of action or inaction chosen by public authorities to address a

given problem, issue or interrelated problems or issues

Common Good.

common good
 The Common Good
Common Good

Collectivist perspective
individualistic perspective
public interest
 Units of Analysis
• The individual as a unit of analysis
• Sovereignty
• The sovereign individual/Citizen
• The state, kingdom, province, community
• The world, global or global village,
• The planet and the environment
• Gender, race, ethnicity, ability, sexuality
 Key concepts
• The concept of human nature
• The concept of power
• The concept of consent
• Authority and governance
• The individual
• Citizen as sovereign
• Individual and society or the collective
• The state, kingdom, province, community as
political communities
• Nation, national, local, global, globalization
 Human nature
What does it mean to be human?

“ Man is a political animal” Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

Humans are social beings by nature. Only a beast would live without being in a
society or a political community. Society is the highest form of self-
actualization

The state of nature is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”

Hobbes (1588-1679)
A condition of war involving “every man against every man”
Humans are selfish, driven by desires and aversions, engaged in a perpetual
struggle till death. They seek to avoid violence, starvation and death by seeking
power

Humans are weak and helpless – St. Augustine (354-430)

Humans are good but corruptible - Jean Jacques Rousseau
 Human nature

.
Human Nature
 Politics and Power
The power to govern derives from:
• The individual citizen/s as source of political
legitimacy
• The people as source of legitimacy - people
power, class power
• God (deity) -divine authority as source of
legitimacy – theocracy, absolute monarchy
• Traditional/expert authority as source of
legitimacy - aristocracy, oligarchy, corporatism
• Power as source of legitimacy - dictatorship,
colonialism, imperialism
• Politics is often seen as a struggle for power
 Power and Politics
• Power as the ability to bring about desired outcome
• Power as the ability to influence the actions of others
• Power as coercion - using fear or threats to achieve outcomes
• Power as the ability to impose one group’s interests on
others - or to define them as the public interest
• Power as the capacity to make decisions
• Power to act - citizens
• Power over others - subjects
• Power as ubiquitous – Michel Foucault
– Power runs through all social relations
– Knowledge as power
– Power and resistance
 Power to and Power over
Power understood as:
Power to act:
– Being empowered to do something about events
around you, achieve collective goals
– People power - Gandhi and India, Philippines,Civil
rights movements, feminist movement, social
movements
• Power over others:
– Being subject to constraints imposed by others
– Citizen as subject
– Oppressions - imperialism, patriarchy, colonialism
 Class Exercise
• Film: A Force More Powerful
• Take five minutes to prepare a short
paragraph indicating what issue caught
your attention in the video and why
• Submit with your name and date
 A force more powerful
• “How can a 100,000 men rule over 350million
people”
• “They have not taken India from us, we have
given it to them”
• “Gandhi intends to withdraw India’s consent to
British rule”
• “The song of the spinning wheels will become
the song of freedom”
• “As Britain lost America through tea, it is about
to lose India through salt”
 The struggle over India
The case study of India in “A force more powerful”
Consent as basis for governance
 Consent and hegemony

coercionconsent
normalized
dominance
hegemonic order
 Political Authority
• Authority represents the ‘right to make decisions’ for a
political community.
• Political authority guarantees legitimacy – meaning that
the governed accept the process and decisions of those
in authority

Max Weber (1864-1920)

• Traditional –authority invested in individuals by custom or heredity
• Charismatic – authority derives from extraordinary personal qualities
of a leader and the ability to inspire a following
• Legal rationalism – authority defined by bureaucratic, procedural
structures
– Modern liberal democratic institutions
– the emphasis is on expert knowledge
– corporatism
 Legitimacy
• Legitimate authority is central to governance
• Politics is often about maintaining legitimate authority
• Effective governance depends on the legitimacy of those
with power to get the people to act in ways that achieve
their objectives
• Legitimacy involves both consent and the
acknowledgement of coercive force
• All governments depend on the inclination of the
population to obey the laws they pass but also rely on
coercion to a certain extent
• Question: Should individuals fight in an unpopular war?
 Citizen as sovereign
legitimacy