Comparative Politics: A Global Introduction by Michael J. Sodaro Third Edition Chapter 4: “Power” Presented for Instruction by Angela Oberbauer, M.A. Updated 2011
Download ReportTranscript Comparative Politics: A Global Introduction by Michael J. Sodaro Third Edition Chapter 4: “Power” Presented for Instruction by Angela Oberbauer, M.A. Updated 2011
Slide 1
Comparative Politics: A Global
Introduction by
Michael J. Sodaro
Third Edition
Chapter 4: “Power”
Presented for Instruction
by Angela Oberbauer, M.A.
Updated 2011
Slide 2
Define What Power is?
(pp. 98-115)
• Power is the capacity to effect outcomes.
• Power reveals who is strong and who is
weak.
• Power is as central in the world of politics,
as money is in economics.
• Power is the capacity to cause or bring
about actions or results.
• Power is a capability or potential (Latin
potere, “to be able”).
• Power is not any specific thing or action:
it is an ability that someone possesses, e.g.
U.S. President; or some powerful inanimate object,
e.g. the atomic bomb.
Slide 3
How is Power Exercised as
Dominance?
• Having the ability to determine or control
political outcomes.
• Dominance is the maximum degree of
political power.
• Can be exercised by government officials who
enjoy enormous legal authority.
• Or by nongovernmental groups with powerful
assets to influence political decision-making.
Slide 4
Showing Power as Influence
• Influence is a degree or dimension of power,
one that is less all-encompassing than
domination (Sodaro 101).
• Influence is the capacity to effect outcomes
indirectly or partially.
• It also means that individuals have access to
political decision-makers.
Slide 5
Defining Political Power?
• Political Power is the capacity to effect
outcomes by controlling or influencing the
state. The “state” means government at
any level.
• Political Power means the ability to
determine or influence the decisions,
actions, or behavior of government
officials.
• Comparative Politics focuses on the various
ways power can be used “within” countries.
Slide 6
Who Has Power? And How Much?
• Elites: socially prominent, politically knowledgeable.
• Political Elites: people who have prominent positions
either in government or in nongovernmental
organizations and professions that have a real effect or
impact on government decisions and actions.
--Primary Elites = 1% of population:
Government officials--Presidents, cabinet
ministers, legislators, judiciary (refer to
Comparative 1).
--Secondary Elites - ca. 2-5% of population:
Heads to major corporations and business,
Leaders of trade unions, important interest
groups, religious authorities, politically
influential journalists and academics.
Slide 7
continued
• Who are the Political Society? are most politically
active members of the population: government
officials, party activists.
• Who are the Masses: the rest of the population
(refer to Comparative 1, page 8), consists of
diversity, including ethnicities, religions, and class.
• Therefore power assumes what? That some people
have more of it than others have ---especially to
influence governmental decisions and actions:
How does the society see government?
--as an authority,legitimate, elite, coercive?
Slide 8
continued
• What is meant by Political Power?
1. Competition for positions of governmental authority
2. Competition for influence over what government officials
do.
3. Relationships between elites and populations.
Therefore:
When is Power Relational? When it involves a relationship
between a “power holder” and “someone else” over whom
the power holder has some kind of power, e.g. Dominance and
Influence.
Power as Dominance exercised? Is the maximum degree of
political power exercised by government officials (dictators),
or by nongovernmental groups or individuals (white Americans
before the Civil Rights Movement).
Power as Influence exercised? The capacity to affect outcomes
indirectly or partially, e.g. government decisions, actions, or
behavior without fully controlling them (the U.S. President).
Slide 9
continued
The Power Elite in the United States? C.Wright Mills
1950s (p.101). The “Warlords”, the “Political
Directorate” and the “Corporate Chieftains” (refer
to Mills in Danziger/Rejai II, and know also “The
Ruling Class” defined by Gaetano Mosca, et al in
early the 1920s - 1939).
Check these Power Elites out at your class website
POSC 103, click on “References/Sources” button,
and then click on the PowerPoint lecture
“Danziger III.”
Slide 10
continued
• Explain Weber’s three types of Legitimate authority?
• Traditional Authority
• Legal-Rational Authority
• Charismatic Authority (pp. 103/104)
How much Power the Governing Elites Have depends on what?
• Is the authority limited or unconstrained?
• Are government officials and the institutions they operate
subject to the jurisdiction of laws that limit their power?
e.g. Magna Carta 1215 signed by King John at
http://www.bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta/magna.html
• Or, are they above the law (dictators)?
• Do they have Legal authority of the “state”, meaning the
governing elite’s capacity to make, implement, and enforce the
law?
Slide 11
continued
Democracies? are based on principle of the rule of law: the
legal authority of states and its officials is limited by the law,
and that no one is above the law (p.104).
Autocracy? means one-person rule:
• Supreme governing authority and is acknowledged as the
maximum leader by dominant country’s elites (primary and
secondary).
• Makes final decisions, e.g. sultan (rulers) (p. 105).
Oligarchy? rule by a few (Communist leadership after death of
Stalin in 1953).
Totalitarianism? a form of authoritarianism in which the
government controls/dominates politics, the economy, and
society.
Slide 12
Techniques Elites Use in Exercising Power
• Bargaining: What are the four techniques used by Elites to Bargain?
• Persuasion is a bargaining technique: persuade the people to follow
appealing to their individual self-interest, etc.
• Or leaders may use patriotic symbols or religious symbols to persuade.
• Propaganda is a deliberate form of political persuasion to
secure mass mobilization (e.g. Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union)
• Offering Rewards in return for favorable behavior:
Both Democracies and Dictatorships offer material rewards, e.g.
--jobs, tax cuts, welfare benefits;
--or psychological rewards (national greatness, spiritual uplifting).
• Cooptation rewards in exchange for political support or neutrality
(as sort of Social Contract).
• Coercion: is the act of compelling people to do something (p. 105)
How do Elites use -- Legal Authority?
--Autocratic regimes, Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein use violence to
stamp out opposition, with no accountability to the people.
--Democratic governments routinely arrest people and jail them for
violating the law, however, they are accountable to the people.
Slide 13
Explain How Abuse of Power is Exercised by Political
Leaders?
• By tyranny of the Majority in Legislative Bodies.
• Political corruption: the illegal or unethical use of a political
position to provide special advantages for individuals or
groups: accepting bribes or other favors from
e.g. Mafia, businesses, white collar crimes, etc.
---because of the “absence of the rule of law,” or
the rule of law not being followed.
---because of the “lack of alternation in power,
meaning, political officials need to be replaced or
limited in their positions of power.
---because of “nepotism:” favoritism shown to family or
friends in favors, job assignments.
Slide 14
Chapter 5: The State And Its Institutions
• Defining the State: (The Treaty of Westphalia 1648
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/westphal.htm)
The State is the totality of a Country’s governmental
institutions and officials, together with the laws and
procedures that structure their activities.
Institutions: are governmental organizations that perform
specified functions on the basis of laws, rules, directives, and
other authoritative procedures and practices, regulations and
operating principles: e.g. Cabinets, legislatures, courts, the
bureaucracy, the military, the police, public schools and colleges,
your local trash removal department.
What are the Elements a State Requires to be recognized?
1. Legal Authority: only the state/national government
possesses the legal authority to make, and coercively enforce,
laws that are binding on the population.
If a state cannot employ its coercive power effectively and is
challenged by domestic groups or anarchy exists, it is called
a “Failed State” or is in “Political Decay”.
Slide 15
State, continued
2. Sovereignty: is the exclusive legal authority of a
government over its population and territory,
independent of external authorities (there is no
higher authority that the “State” will recognize
but its own).
Sovereignty is “key element” for legal concept of State.
Examples of “Pooled Sovereignty” are the U.N. and EU.
http://www.un.org/english/, and http://europa.eu/index_en.htm
(more in Chapter 6).
In the Pooled Sovereignty case, “shared sovereignty” is
exercised.
3. Legitimacy: is the right to rule.
--the right to employ force within a given territory (126)
--the right to make laws and implement them.
Slide 16
State, continued
4. Autonomy of the state refers to the relative
independence of state authorities from the
population.
High degree of independence: state officials are quite
free to do what they please when it comes to governing
the society.
Low degree of independence: state officials are limited
to create laws or make decisions independent of the
population or its politically most powerful groups.
Maximum state autonomy: people have little or not say.
Minimum state autonomy: state officials are very limited.
Slide 17
State, continued
5. Territorial Integrity:
a. A state must have sufficient power to
protect itself militarily to resist and reject
any aggression, invasion, or intervention
within its territorial boundaries.
b. It must be able to protect its “National
Interests,” which include everything within or
outside of the State’s domain [It] considers to be
its National Interest.
Slide 18
The Purposes of the State
• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): proposed that the people should form
a kind of social contract (“covenant”) with the leaders of an allpowerful state which he called “Leviathan” (p. 127).
• Hobbes proposed further that the state’s main purpose would be to
leave humanity free to pursue science, art, exploration, and other
aspects of civilization without the “continual fear, and danger of violent
death (p. 127).
• John Locke (1632-1704): argues government’s role is to safeguard
one’s property, natural rights and freedoms. Locke
favored a representative democracy established “by common
consent”, with an elected legislature making up the highest political
authority (p. 127).
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): Rousseau stressed the
“collective rights and freedoms of the community;” the people,
not the State are “the sovereign;” together they form an organic
“body politic” on the basis of the “general will” which is the
common good (p. 127).
• Adam Smith (1723-90), Scottish Philosopher “The father of modern
free-market economics” argued the state’s should promote private
enterprise without excessive government interference.
• The state should limit itself to provide a legal system to enable
commerce to flow and undertake projects unprofitable for
entrepreneurs to take on (p. 128).
Slide 19
The Purposes of the State, continued
• Most modern states were fashioned from force
rather than consent of the governed.
• Anarchism: notion that the people are better off
without rule of law or an organized government.
• Sodaro notes that today’s governments run a wide
gamut, dependent upon whether the elites in
government follow democratic controls, or
violently impose their will on the population (128).
Slide 20
State Institutions
Institutionalism: is the branch of
comparative politics that looks at how state
institutions are set up and how they shape
the political decision-making process --and then their “Outcomes” are these
decisions.
Slide 21
Continued
• In most countries the legal competence of governmental
institutions is defined in a national constitution.
• The U.S.: first country to establish itself from scratch on the
basis of a written Constitution in 1787, then in 1791 “The Bill
of Rights” were added, which are the first Ten Amendments to
the U.S. Constitution. Since that time, only seventeen more
Amendments have been added.
• Britain: is one of the oldest continuous constitutional traditions,
which consists of thousands of laws and practices that have been
developed over the course of centuries of parliamentary
interactions with the crown and courts.
• Israel: established in 1948, has no formal constitution, only
Basic Laws and other legislation that substitute for a
constitution.
• Germany: is also without a formal constitution.
Slide 22
continued
• Political Scientists also look at the ways state
institutions operate in real life. Often they
provide only the skeletal structure of a
governmental system, but may not indicate how
the system’s institutional parts really work or how
effectively the laws of the land are implemented.
• Often Constitutions are vague about governmental
authority, and leave room to interpretation, which
is often conflicting (p. 129).
Slide 23
The Executive
Types of Executives:
Head of Government: is usually the country’s chief political
officer and is responsible for presenting and conducting its
principal policies, “real decision-making authority” (p. 124):
e.g.
Britain = Prime Minister with Cabinet are Head of
Government; Crown is Head of State
U.S. = President is Head of State and Head of
Government.
France = “Dual Executive:” The President is Head of
State, with greater decision-making authority
than the Prime Minister who is
the Head of Government.
Germany = Chancellor, Head of Government
Japan = Head of State is the Emperor; Head of
Government is the Prime Minister.
Slide 24
The Executive, continued
• What are some Roles of Executives:
• Leadership, symbolic, and ceremonial roles.
• Supervision of the administration.
• Supervision of the military and foreign affairs.
Some executives are purely ceremonial, some
have real power.
Slide 25
The Legislature:
• Unicameral = one Legislative House:
• Advantages of one house: it does not have to share authority
with a second legislative chamber in making laws (therefore, no
gridlock, delays, needed compromise with members from a
second chamber).
• Bicameral = two Legislative Houses: Upper and Lower Houses
• Advantages of two houses: each provides greater representation
for population and requires greater deliberation in law-making
process
Different electoral systems:
• Winner-take-all (U.S.elections)
• House of Representatives - one representative per district.
• Senate - 1788 until 1913: Two were selected per state by State’s
Legislative Branch. With the 17th Amendment in 1913, elected by
whole state’s voters.
• Proportional elections (Parliamentary Systems): each district
can have multiple [party] representatives. Only need small
percentile of votes [often 5% or 10%] to win seat in Legislature.
Slide 26
The Judiciary
Functions of Courts:
• Interpret laws.
• Apply the relevant rules or laws.
• It is utilized as a mechanism of social control ensuring acceptable
social behavior.
• To Arbitrate over other branches of government in the political
system to check that their actions are constitutional and according
to law.
• U.S. Judicial Systems: Federal and State Judicial Systems.
Federal Courts: - The Supreme Court, 13 Circuit Appellate
Courts,94 District Courts.
The U.S. Supreme Court can exercise “Judicial Review,” that is
evaluate whether laws or actions by the Executive or
Legislative Branches are constitutional or not.
U.S. State Courts: Supreme Courts, District Appellate Courts,
County Courts.
Britain: House of Lords (Upper House) functions as
the countries highest constitutional court.
Slide 27
The Bureaucracy
Functions and Power of “Civil Servants”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Information Management.
Provision of Knowledge, advisory.
Provision of public goods and services.
Regulation and enforcement of public policies.
Extraction of resources: collectors of revenues,
and operate state owned or directed goods and
resources.
•
Bureaucracies (in different countries) can differ in terms
of operating procedures, the class and educational
backgrounds of their personnel, their propensity to
corruption (p.131).
Slide 28
The Military
• Military establishments can be very powerful:
• “Junta” refers to the leaders of a military government.
• Some military officials keep civilian governments
dependent on the their approval (p. 132).
• Many states currently in transition to democracy were
ruled by military officials.
• Bolivia experienced periods of civilian rule from 1825 1982 with more than 180 military seizures of power during
that 157 year period.
• Military “coup d’etat, or “Revolution from Above: forceful
takeover of state power by military heads:
• Why? Because of economic stagnation, poorly developed
political institutions, poor governmental performance,
including low levels of popular support for civilian
politicians, also breakdown in law and order.
Slide 29
How States Are Organized: Who has the
power; The Central Government or the
Subnational Authorities [regions]?
• Unitary System: Central [National] institutions
conduct decision-making.
• The Subnational Authorities [regions or states] have little
or no decision-making power. They only implement laws
decided by the National institutions.
• Federations (Federal System): Powers are constitutionally
divided between National and Subnational regions [states].
• The States have decision-making power, then allocate decisionmaking powers to local governments, e.g. counties, cities.
• Confederations: States [subnational regions] enjoy significant
local autonomy or even independence as sovereign states.
• The Central Government is weak, symbolic, and administrative
(p.139/140).
Slide 30
continued
• Divided Government:
• Rational Decision Making versus “Satisficing”
(pp141-242).
• Unitary Actor model of decision making.
Slide 31
Chapter 6, States and Nations: Nationalism-Nation-Building and Supranationalism
• A Nation: is a group of people whose members share a
common identity on the basis of distinguishing characteristics
and a claim to a territorial homeland:
• Language, religion, territory, culture, race, or ethnicity.
• National Identity: People’s conscious belief that they collectively
constitute a nation.
• Ethnicity: a group identification rooted in a common
biological ancestry (or the group’s belief in a common
biological ancestry).
• Members of a nation lay claim to a more or less clearly
defined territory (p. 148).
• Civic Community: shared principles or ideals or community
goals.
• Multinational State: consists of a variety of peoples who
have their own separate national identities but also
citizens of a State (e.g.U.S.)
Slide 32
Nationalism
• Nationalism is a consciously formulated set of political ideas
emphasizing the distinctiveness and unity of one’s nation, specifying
common interests, and prescribing goals for action and to constitute
the “nation” as an effective political actor to protect its members’
common interest and realize their common aims.(p. 149).
• Constituting the Nation as a Political Actor: defenders of a group’s
collective identity may want the government under which they live
to cease discrimination against their people.
• Territorial autonomy: self-government over its own territory within the
structure of a larger state.
• Independence or self determination -- the group wants its own country
or state.
• Separatism [to Secede], e.g. Civil War in U.S.; East Timorese from
Indonesia 2002; or when German nationalists succeeded in creating a
unified German state in the nineteenth century.
Slide 33
Nation Building
• Nation building is the process of building a widely shared
national identity among a country’s population, under an
independent, legitimate state, e.g. Germany under dictators
before and during WWII (p. 152).
• Democracy can provide:
•
a more effective way of building and reinforcing a population’s
identity as a nation:
• a state that has been explicitly approved by the population and
follow-up by elections with competing candidates for office.
• it must cement ties of mutual interest and cooperation among
various social components, encouraging their active
participation in a common cause.
• Democracy can provide common goals that can unit the people.
Slide 34
State Nationalism in International Affairs
• Nationalist, and Nationalistic refer to certain orientations that
national governments adopt in their relations with states
international organizations, and other international actors
[International Affairs].
• States are the principal executors of these foreign interactions.
• A Nationalistic Foreign Policy affirms that the country is entitled
to have its voice heard and its interests and policy positions
taken into account.
• Patriotism means love of one’s country and general loyalty to
one’s state.
• Hypernationalism is extreme nationalism, also known as
“Ethnonationalism.”
Xenophobia, means distrust and hatred of foreigners.
Chauvinism (Sodaro notes] means wildly exaggerated,
fanatical patriotism.
Irredentism: a nationalist foreign policy manifests a claim on
the territory of another state in an effort to unite a national
group, e.g. Germany under Hitler; Italy under Mussolini.
Slide 35
When the Nation and the State
Don’t Fit Together
• A Nation-State is a sovereign state consisting of
one “nation” within internationally recognized
boundaries.
• In most instances, the nation’s population is characterized
in ethnic terms, e.g. Germans, Italians, Serbs, Poles
(p.155).
• Conflicts become unbearable [157] when different nations
within a territory have competing visions of nation and
state.
Slide 36
Supranationalism
• Supranationalism refers to efforts on the
part of two or more countries to limit their
sovereignty by establishing new decisionmaking structures over and above their
national governments.
• Example: the European Union (p. 166).
Comparative Politics: A Global
Introduction by
Michael J. Sodaro
Third Edition
Chapter 4: “Power”
Presented for Instruction
by Angela Oberbauer, M.A.
Updated 2011
Slide 2
Define What Power is?
(pp. 98-115)
• Power is the capacity to effect outcomes.
• Power reveals who is strong and who is
weak.
• Power is as central in the world of politics,
as money is in economics.
• Power is the capacity to cause or bring
about actions or results.
• Power is a capability or potential (Latin
potere, “to be able”).
• Power is not any specific thing or action:
it is an ability that someone possesses, e.g.
U.S. President; or some powerful inanimate object,
e.g. the atomic bomb.
Slide 3
How is Power Exercised as
Dominance?
• Having the ability to determine or control
political outcomes.
• Dominance is the maximum degree of
political power.
• Can be exercised by government officials who
enjoy enormous legal authority.
• Or by nongovernmental groups with powerful
assets to influence political decision-making.
Slide 4
Showing Power as Influence
• Influence is a degree or dimension of power,
one that is less all-encompassing than
domination (Sodaro 101).
• Influence is the capacity to effect outcomes
indirectly or partially.
• It also means that individuals have access to
political decision-makers.
Slide 5
Defining Political Power?
• Political Power is the capacity to effect
outcomes by controlling or influencing the
state. The “state” means government at
any level.
• Political Power means the ability to
determine or influence the decisions,
actions, or behavior of government
officials.
• Comparative Politics focuses on the various
ways power can be used “within” countries.
Slide 6
Who Has Power? And How Much?
• Elites: socially prominent, politically knowledgeable.
• Political Elites: people who have prominent positions
either in government or in nongovernmental
organizations and professions that have a real effect or
impact on government decisions and actions.
--Primary Elites = 1% of population:
Government officials--Presidents, cabinet
ministers, legislators, judiciary (refer to
Comparative 1).
--Secondary Elites - ca. 2-5% of population:
Heads to major corporations and business,
Leaders of trade unions, important interest
groups, religious authorities, politically
influential journalists and academics.
Slide 7
continued
• Who are the Political Society? are most politically
active members of the population: government
officials, party activists.
• Who are the Masses: the rest of the population
(refer to Comparative 1, page 8), consists of
diversity, including ethnicities, religions, and class.
• Therefore power assumes what? That some people
have more of it than others have ---especially to
influence governmental decisions and actions:
How does the society see government?
--as an authority,legitimate, elite, coercive?
Slide 8
continued
• What is meant by Political Power?
1. Competition for positions of governmental authority
2. Competition for influence over what government officials
do.
3. Relationships between elites and populations.
Therefore:
When is Power Relational? When it involves a relationship
between a “power holder” and “someone else” over whom
the power holder has some kind of power, e.g. Dominance and
Influence.
Power as Dominance exercised? Is the maximum degree of
political power exercised by government officials (dictators),
or by nongovernmental groups or individuals (white Americans
before the Civil Rights Movement).
Power as Influence exercised? The capacity to affect outcomes
indirectly or partially, e.g. government decisions, actions, or
behavior without fully controlling them (the U.S. President).
Slide 9
continued
The Power Elite in the United States? C.Wright Mills
1950s (p.101). The “Warlords”, the “Political
Directorate” and the “Corporate Chieftains” (refer
to Mills in Danziger/Rejai II, and know also “The
Ruling Class” defined by Gaetano Mosca, et al in
early the 1920s - 1939).
Check these Power Elites out at your class website
POSC 103, click on “References/Sources” button,
and then click on the PowerPoint lecture
“Danziger III.”
Slide 10
continued
• Explain Weber’s three types of Legitimate authority?
• Traditional Authority
• Legal-Rational Authority
• Charismatic Authority (pp. 103/104)
How much Power the Governing Elites Have depends on what?
• Is the authority limited or unconstrained?
• Are government officials and the institutions they operate
subject to the jurisdiction of laws that limit their power?
e.g. Magna Carta 1215 signed by King John at
http://www.bl.uk/treasures/magnacarta/magna.html
• Or, are they above the law (dictators)?
• Do they have Legal authority of the “state”, meaning the
governing elite’s capacity to make, implement, and enforce the
law?
Slide 11
continued
Democracies? are based on principle of the rule of law: the
legal authority of states and its officials is limited by the law,
and that no one is above the law (p.104).
Autocracy? means one-person rule:
• Supreme governing authority and is acknowledged as the
maximum leader by dominant country’s elites (primary and
secondary).
• Makes final decisions, e.g. sultan (rulers) (p. 105).
Oligarchy? rule by a few (Communist leadership after death of
Stalin in 1953).
Totalitarianism? a form of authoritarianism in which the
government controls/dominates politics, the economy, and
society.
Slide 12
Techniques Elites Use in Exercising Power
• Bargaining: What are the four techniques used by Elites to Bargain?
• Persuasion is a bargaining technique: persuade the people to follow
appealing to their individual self-interest, etc.
• Or leaders may use patriotic symbols or religious symbols to persuade.
• Propaganda is a deliberate form of political persuasion to
secure mass mobilization (e.g. Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union)
• Offering Rewards in return for favorable behavior:
Both Democracies and Dictatorships offer material rewards, e.g.
--jobs, tax cuts, welfare benefits;
--or psychological rewards (national greatness, spiritual uplifting).
• Cooptation rewards in exchange for political support or neutrality
(as sort of Social Contract).
• Coercion: is the act of compelling people to do something (p. 105)
How do Elites use -- Legal Authority?
--Autocratic regimes, Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein use violence to
stamp out opposition, with no accountability to the people.
--Democratic governments routinely arrest people and jail them for
violating the law, however, they are accountable to the people.
Slide 13
Explain How Abuse of Power is Exercised by Political
Leaders?
• By tyranny of the Majority in Legislative Bodies.
• Political corruption: the illegal or unethical use of a political
position to provide special advantages for individuals or
groups: accepting bribes or other favors from
e.g. Mafia, businesses, white collar crimes, etc.
---because of the “absence of the rule of law,” or
the rule of law not being followed.
---because of the “lack of alternation in power,
meaning, political officials need to be replaced or
limited in their positions of power.
---because of “nepotism:” favoritism shown to family or
friends in favors, job assignments.
Slide 14
Chapter 5: The State And Its Institutions
• Defining the State: (The Treaty of Westphalia 1648
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/westphal.htm)
The State is the totality of a Country’s governmental
institutions and officials, together with the laws and
procedures that structure their activities.
Institutions: are governmental organizations that perform
specified functions on the basis of laws, rules, directives, and
other authoritative procedures and practices, regulations and
operating principles: e.g. Cabinets, legislatures, courts, the
bureaucracy, the military, the police, public schools and colleges,
your local trash removal department.
What are the Elements a State Requires to be recognized?
1. Legal Authority: only the state/national government
possesses the legal authority to make, and coercively enforce,
laws that are binding on the population.
If a state cannot employ its coercive power effectively and is
challenged by domestic groups or anarchy exists, it is called
a “Failed State” or is in “Political Decay”.
Slide 15
State, continued
2. Sovereignty: is the exclusive legal authority of a
government over its population and territory,
independent of external authorities (there is no
higher authority that the “State” will recognize
but its own).
Sovereignty is “key element” for legal concept of State.
Examples of “Pooled Sovereignty” are the U.N. and EU.
http://www.un.org/english/, and http://europa.eu/index_en.htm
(more in Chapter 6).
In the Pooled Sovereignty case, “shared sovereignty” is
exercised.
3. Legitimacy: is the right to rule.
--the right to employ force within a given territory (126)
--the right to make laws and implement them.
Slide 16
State, continued
4. Autonomy of the state refers to the relative
independence of state authorities from the
population.
High degree of independence: state officials are quite
free to do what they please when it comes to governing
the society.
Low degree of independence: state officials are limited
to create laws or make decisions independent of the
population or its politically most powerful groups.
Maximum state autonomy: people have little or not say.
Minimum state autonomy: state officials are very limited.
Slide 17
State, continued
5. Territorial Integrity:
a. A state must have sufficient power to
protect itself militarily to resist and reject
any aggression, invasion, or intervention
within its territorial boundaries.
b. It must be able to protect its “National
Interests,” which include everything within or
outside of the State’s domain [It] considers to be
its National Interest.
Slide 18
The Purposes of the State
• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): proposed that the people should form
a kind of social contract (“covenant”) with the leaders of an allpowerful state which he called “Leviathan” (p. 127).
• Hobbes proposed further that the state’s main purpose would be to
leave humanity free to pursue science, art, exploration, and other
aspects of civilization without the “continual fear, and danger of violent
death (p. 127).
• John Locke (1632-1704): argues government’s role is to safeguard
one’s property, natural rights and freedoms. Locke
favored a representative democracy established “by common
consent”, with an elected legislature making up the highest political
authority (p. 127).
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): Rousseau stressed the
“collective rights and freedoms of the community;” the people,
not the State are “the sovereign;” together they form an organic
“body politic” on the basis of the “general will” which is the
common good (p. 127).
• Adam Smith (1723-90), Scottish Philosopher “The father of modern
free-market economics” argued the state’s should promote private
enterprise without excessive government interference.
• The state should limit itself to provide a legal system to enable
commerce to flow and undertake projects unprofitable for
entrepreneurs to take on (p. 128).
Slide 19
The Purposes of the State, continued
• Most modern states were fashioned from force
rather than consent of the governed.
• Anarchism: notion that the people are better off
without rule of law or an organized government.
• Sodaro notes that today’s governments run a wide
gamut, dependent upon whether the elites in
government follow democratic controls, or
violently impose their will on the population (128).
Slide 20
State Institutions
Institutionalism: is the branch of
comparative politics that looks at how state
institutions are set up and how they shape
the political decision-making process --and then their “Outcomes” are these
decisions.
Slide 21
Continued
• In most countries the legal competence of governmental
institutions is defined in a national constitution.
• The U.S.: first country to establish itself from scratch on the
basis of a written Constitution in 1787, then in 1791 “The Bill
of Rights” were added, which are the first Ten Amendments to
the U.S. Constitution. Since that time, only seventeen more
Amendments have been added.
• Britain: is one of the oldest continuous constitutional traditions,
which consists of thousands of laws and practices that have been
developed over the course of centuries of parliamentary
interactions with the crown and courts.
• Israel: established in 1948, has no formal constitution, only
Basic Laws and other legislation that substitute for a
constitution.
• Germany: is also without a formal constitution.
Slide 22
continued
• Political Scientists also look at the ways state
institutions operate in real life. Often they
provide only the skeletal structure of a
governmental system, but may not indicate how
the system’s institutional parts really work or how
effectively the laws of the land are implemented.
• Often Constitutions are vague about governmental
authority, and leave room to interpretation, which
is often conflicting (p. 129).
Slide 23
The Executive
Types of Executives:
Head of Government: is usually the country’s chief political
officer and is responsible for presenting and conducting its
principal policies, “real decision-making authority” (p. 124):
e.g.
Britain = Prime Minister with Cabinet are Head of
Government; Crown is Head of State
U.S. = President is Head of State and Head of
Government.
France = “Dual Executive:” The President is Head of
State, with greater decision-making authority
than the Prime Minister who is
the Head of Government.
Germany = Chancellor, Head of Government
Japan = Head of State is the Emperor; Head of
Government is the Prime Minister.
Slide 24
The Executive, continued
• What are some Roles of Executives:
• Leadership, symbolic, and ceremonial roles.
• Supervision of the administration.
• Supervision of the military and foreign affairs.
Some executives are purely ceremonial, some
have real power.
Slide 25
The Legislature:
• Unicameral = one Legislative House:
• Advantages of one house: it does not have to share authority
with a second legislative chamber in making laws (therefore, no
gridlock, delays, needed compromise with members from a
second chamber).
• Bicameral = two Legislative Houses: Upper and Lower Houses
• Advantages of two houses: each provides greater representation
for population and requires greater deliberation in law-making
process
Different electoral systems:
• Winner-take-all (U.S.elections)
• House of Representatives - one representative per district.
• Senate - 1788 until 1913: Two were selected per state by State’s
Legislative Branch. With the 17th Amendment in 1913, elected by
whole state’s voters.
• Proportional elections (Parliamentary Systems): each district
can have multiple [party] representatives. Only need small
percentile of votes [often 5% or 10%] to win seat in Legislature.
Slide 26
The Judiciary
Functions of Courts:
• Interpret laws.
• Apply the relevant rules or laws.
• It is utilized as a mechanism of social control ensuring acceptable
social behavior.
• To Arbitrate over other branches of government in the political
system to check that their actions are constitutional and according
to law.
• U.S. Judicial Systems: Federal and State Judicial Systems.
Federal Courts: - The Supreme Court, 13 Circuit Appellate
Courts,94 District Courts.
The U.S. Supreme Court can exercise “Judicial Review,” that is
evaluate whether laws or actions by the Executive or
Legislative Branches are constitutional or not.
U.S. State Courts: Supreme Courts, District Appellate Courts,
County Courts.
Britain: House of Lords (Upper House) functions as
the countries highest constitutional court.
Slide 27
The Bureaucracy
Functions and Power of “Civil Servants”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Information Management.
Provision of Knowledge, advisory.
Provision of public goods and services.
Regulation and enforcement of public policies.
Extraction of resources: collectors of revenues,
and operate state owned or directed goods and
resources.
•
Bureaucracies (in different countries) can differ in terms
of operating procedures, the class and educational
backgrounds of their personnel, their propensity to
corruption (p.131).
Slide 28
The Military
• Military establishments can be very powerful:
• “Junta” refers to the leaders of a military government.
• Some military officials keep civilian governments
dependent on the their approval (p. 132).
• Many states currently in transition to democracy were
ruled by military officials.
• Bolivia experienced periods of civilian rule from 1825 1982 with more than 180 military seizures of power during
that 157 year period.
• Military “coup d’etat, or “Revolution from Above: forceful
takeover of state power by military heads:
• Why? Because of economic stagnation, poorly developed
political institutions, poor governmental performance,
including low levels of popular support for civilian
politicians, also breakdown in law and order.
Slide 29
How States Are Organized: Who has the
power; The Central Government or the
Subnational Authorities [regions]?
• Unitary System: Central [National] institutions
conduct decision-making.
• The Subnational Authorities [regions or states] have little
or no decision-making power. They only implement laws
decided by the National institutions.
• Federations (Federal System): Powers are constitutionally
divided between National and Subnational regions [states].
• The States have decision-making power, then allocate decisionmaking powers to local governments, e.g. counties, cities.
• Confederations: States [subnational regions] enjoy significant
local autonomy or even independence as sovereign states.
• The Central Government is weak, symbolic, and administrative
(p.139/140).
Slide 30
continued
• Divided Government:
• Rational Decision Making versus “Satisficing”
(pp141-242).
• Unitary Actor model of decision making.
Slide 31
Chapter 6, States and Nations: Nationalism-Nation-Building and Supranationalism
• A Nation: is a group of people whose members share a
common identity on the basis of distinguishing characteristics
and a claim to a territorial homeland:
• Language, religion, territory, culture, race, or ethnicity.
• National Identity: People’s conscious belief that they collectively
constitute a nation.
• Ethnicity: a group identification rooted in a common
biological ancestry (or the group’s belief in a common
biological ancestry).
• Members of a nation lay claim to a more or less clearly
defined territory (p. 148).
• Civic Community: shared principles or ideals or community
goals.
• Multinational State: consists of a variety of peoples who
have their own separate national identities but also
citizens of a State (e.g.U.S.)
Slide 32
Nationalism
• Nationalism is a consciously formulated set of political ideas
emphasizing the distinctiveness and unity of one’s nation, specifying
common interests, and prescribing goals for action and to constitute
the “nation” as an effective political actor to protect its members’
common interest and realize their common aims.(p. 149).
• Constituting the Nation as a Political Actor: defenders of a group’s
collective identity may want the government under which they live
to cease discrimination against their people.
• Territorial autonomy: self-government over its own territory within the
structure of a larger state.
• Independence or self determination -- the group wants its own country
or state.
• Separatism [to Secede], e.g. Civil War in U.S.; East Timorese from
Indonesia 2002; or when German nationalists succeeded in creating a
unified German state in the nineteenth century.
Slide 33
Nation Building
• Nation building is the process of building a widely shared
national identity among a country’s population, under an
independent, legitimate state, e.g. Germany under dictators
before and during WWII (p. 152).
• Democracy can provide:
•
a more effective way of building and reinforcing a population’s
identity as a nation:
• a state that has been explicitly approved by the population and
follow-up by elections with competing candidates for office.
• it must cement ties of mutual interest and cooperation among
various social components, encouraging their active
participation in a common cause.
• Democracy can provide common goals that can unit the people.
Slide 34
State Nationalism in International Affairs
• Nationalist, and Nationalistic refer to certain orientations that
national governments adopt in their relations with states
international organizations, and other international actors
[International Affairs].
• States are the principal executors of these foreign interactions.
• A Nationalistic Foreign Policy affirms that the country is entitled
to have its voice heard and its interests and policy positions
taken into account.
• Patriotism means love of one’s country and general loyalty to
one’s state.
• Hypernationalism is extreme nationalism, also known as
“Ethnonationalism.”
Xenophobia, means distrust and hatred of foreigners.
Chauvinism (Sodaro notes] means wildly exaggerated,
fanatical patriotism.
Irredentism: a nationalist foreign policy manifests a claim on
the territory of another state in an effort to unite a national
group, e.g. Germany under Hitler; Italy under Mussolini.
Slide 35
When the Nation and the State
Don’t Fit Together
• A Nation-State is a sovereign state consisting of
one “nation” within internationally recognized
boundaries.
• In most instances, the nation’s population is characterized
in ethnic terms, e.g. Germans, Italians, Serbs, Poles
(p.155).
• Conflicts become unbearable [157] when different nations
within a territory have competing visions of nation and
state.
Slide 36
Supranationalism
• Supranationalism refers to efforts on the
part of two or more countries to limit their
sovereignty by establishing new decisionmaking structures over and above their
national governments.
• Example: the European Union (p. 166).