POLITICAL SCIENCE 1010 - LECTURE NOTES



Political Science, Kean University

DR. CHARLES KELLY

Basic Concepts / Theories

The Political System is made of three (3) important parts:

a) The Political Regime

b) The Political Personnel

c) The Political Community

The Regime - is the structure of the institutional configuration of government e.g., in U. S. we have three branches of government and different levels of government e.g., federal, state, and local.

The Political Personnel - are the people in government at any particular time or place e.g., Richard Nixon was the political personnel in the office of the Presidency during 1969 - 1974.

The distinction between the regime and personnel can be seen in the change that occurred with the following:

President Richard Nixon in USA

Adolph Hitler in Pre WWII Germany

In the U. S. Nixon resigned as President but the office of the Presidency continued,

we changed personnel but not regime.

In Germany there was no change in personnel but there was an important change in regime. Germany went from a democracy to an authoritarian and then a totalitarian regime under Adolph Hitler’s leadership.

The Political Community are all those affected by government.

There are three (3) models of how the political process works within the political regime.

1) Elitism

2) Participatory Democracy

3) Pluralism



Elitism maintains society is hierarchically organized with a few deciding and the many following. Elitism makes no claim of being democratic.

There are two (2) variations of elitism:

1) One school of thought maintains that elitism is natural and can be beneficial for society

e.g., Plato’s Republic wise philosopher-kings will rule for the betterment of society.

2) Another school of thought maintains that elitism is inevitable to do human nature,

bureaucracy, or the economic system. This school maintains that elitism is an exploitative type

of system, where the rulers exploit the ruled e.g., Marx maintain that in Feudalism and Capitalism the rulers ruled in their own interest at the expense of the many. (See Chart I)

Participatory Democracy maintains that in order for the political system to be truly democratic, society has to be democratized, i.e., all structure in society, family, job, church, etc. have to abandon their hierarchical structure and become democratic.

In order to appreciate what the proponents of participatory democracy are saying it is useful to view democracy on a continuum ranging from pure totalitarianism to pure democracy.

ABSOLUTE Reality ABSOLUTE

Totalitarianism------------------------------------------------------------Pure Democracy

e.g. George Orwell’s Somewhere in between Equal Influence

1984 for all

Proponents of Participatory Democracy wants to break down the hierarchical structure and move toward collective decision-making where the many are deciding their own fate. Some proponents of Participatory Democracy concede that it is impractical to achieve absolute equality of influence but nonetheless that should be the goal of society e.g. Marx’s Communist Utopia.

Pluralism maintains that the political system is hierarchically structured, i.e., there are a few deciding and many follows. Despite this fact, pluralism maintains democracy is possible, i.e., the many can make the few responsive, accountable and accessible. The way this is done is as follows:

1) No one group in society has a monopoly of power.

2) In order to make governmental policy coalitions of groups have to be formed and

groups in society are pragmatic enough to work out compromises.

3) There is a basic consensus w/n society that rules out violence as a legitimate

way to resolve group conflict.

a) this consensus also involves a widespread agreement on a mechanism for

making decisions.,

b) this mechanism is considered legitimate i.e., the losers are willing to comply

with the decision of the winners.

c) another requirement is that the winners permit the losers to criticize and

challenge the winners’ decision. See figure-1, Pluralism.gif

A Pluralist democracy is characterized by competition by power by organized groups. The unorganized have little or no power in the political system.

Political Regime - regardless of the type of regime all regimes seek legitimacy. Legitimacy is the tacit or explicit support of the regime by its people. Usually it is an emotional identification with the regime. The regime is legitimate when the people believe that institutional structures of the government are the most appropriate for society.

There are various sources of legitimacy. Max Weber speaks of three (3) ideal types of legitimacy:

1) Traditional - people support the regime out of habit and custom.

2) Rational legal - people support the regime because the explicit rules and procedures of

government make sense to the people--the people prefer on rational grounds the rule

of law over other types of rule.

3) Charismatic - people support the regime because of an emotional identification with the

personality of the leader of the regime.

According to Weber we find mixes of the three (3) types of legitimacy in every society but it is possible to categorize regime by the dominant source of legitimacy. (See Chart II)

Political Culture - In order to understand legitimacy it is important to comprehend the political culture of society.

Political culture is the values, beliefs, attitudes and aspirations of the people in society which orient them politically. In order for a regime to be legitimate there has to be widespread agreement in society on certain sets of values i.e., some sort of a consensus.

Ideology is an explicit set of values that orients people in society in terms of what they can expect from government and what government should do for them and society. It speaks to human nature, the role of government in society and the relationship of politics and economics. It also advances the economic interests of a social class in society.

The three (3) main ideologies of politics are Conservatism, Liberalism and socialism. There are many variations of the ideologies i.e., fascism, Nazism, communism, populism, etc., but they all can be traced back to one or more of three. (See Chart III)

POLITICAL SCIENCE

LECTURE NOTES DR. CHARLES KELLY

CHART I

MARX’S THEORY OF HISTORY – ECONOMIC DETERMINISM

|Stages of |Environment |Societal |Territorial |Classes |Source of |Economic |

|History | |Relationships |Political Units | |Legitimacy |System |

| | | | | | | |

|Primitive |Abundance |Harmony |None |None |None |None |

|Communism | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|Feudalism |Scarcity |Conflict |City-state |Noble vs. |Religion |Agrarian |

| | | | |Peasants | | |

| | | | | | | |

|Capitalism |Less |Conflict |Nation-state |Bourgeoisie |Nationalism |Industrial |

| |Scarcity | | |vs. | | |

| | | | |Proletariat | | |

|Socialism |Least |Conflict |Regional |Proletariat |Working-class |Highly |

| |Scarcity | |Camps |vs. |Consciousness |Industrialized |

| | | | |Bourgeoisie | | |

|Communism |Sufficiency |Harmony |Global |None |Equality |Nearly |

| | | |Society | | |Automated |

| | | | | | | |

CHART II

WEBER’S TYPOLOGY OF DIFFERENT POLITICAL REGIMES

(THE TYPE OF REGIME LEGITIMACY INFLUENCES POLITICAL STABILITY)

|TYPES OF LEGITIMACY |PROBLEM I |PROBLEM II |POLITICAL STABILITY |

| | | | |

| |Dealing with Transfer of |Dealing with the Pheno- |(Dealing with Problems |

| |Power |menon of Change |I & II) |

| | | | |

|CHARISMATIC | | | |

| |Deals Poorly |Deals Well |Less Stable |

|(Regime accepted by the | | | |

|People because of the |(Cannot Transfer |(Can Muster Necessary | |

|personality of its leader) |Personality of Leader) |Political will | |

|TRADITIONAL |Deals Well |Deals Poorly |Less Stable |

| | | | |

|(Regime accepted because |(e.g., law of primogeniture) |(Can not break with | |

|it based on tradition and | |Tradition | |

|custom) | | | |

| | | | |

|RATIONAL - LEGAL |Deals Well |Deals Well |Most Stable |

| | | | |

|(Regime accepted because |(Elections, explicit line of |(Legislation, Amendments | |

|procedures are perceived |succession) |and judicial review) | |

|logical and reasonable) | | | |

| | | | |

CHART III

MAJOR IDEOLOGIES

Class Historical Economic Role of Nature of Source of

Constituency Origins System Government Man Power

|Conservatism |Nobility |18th Century |Mercantilism |Paternalistic |Anti-Social |Land |

| | | | |(Strong | | |

| | | | |Government) | | |

| | | | | | | |

|Liberalism |Middle Class |19th Century |Capitalism |Laissez Faire |Social |Commerce |

| | | | |(Weak Government) | | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | |

|Socialism |Working Class |20th Century |Centrally Owned and|Interventionist |Malleable |Numbers & |

| | | |Planned Economy |(Strong | |Organizations |

| | | | |Government | | |

| | | | | | | |

Dr. Charles P. Kelly

(ms-word/97 )

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