1 What is Politics?

Question 1

For Aristotle, politics was the “______ science”, the activity through which humans improve their ______ and create the ______ Society.

Answer 1

For Aristotle, politics was the “master science”, the activity through which humans improve their lives and create the Good Society.

Question 2

Broad definition of politics?

Answer 2

Activity whereby people determine the rules under which they live.

Question 3

What two factors make politics an inevitable feature of the human condition?

Answer 3

1 Diversity –differing needs and wants
2 Scarcity –never enough to go around

Question 4

US historian Henry Adams summed up politics as ‘the systematic organization of _______’.

Answer 4

US historian Henry Adams summed up politics as ‘the systematic organization of hatreds’.

Question 5

Difference between authority and power?

Answer 5

Authority is power with some kind of perceived legitimacy

Question 6

Machiavelli dates?

Answer 6

1469-1527

Question 7

When was The Prince published?

Answer 7

1532

Question 8

What was Machiavelli’s The Prince based on?

Answer 8

Machiavelli’s first-hand observations of the statecraft of Cesare Borgia.

Question 9

What was the purpose of Machiavelli’s The Prince?

Answer 9

As a guide for the future prince of a united Italy.

Question 10

Who said this?

‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’.

Answer 10

Lord Acton (1834–1902)–British politician and historian.

Question 11

Aristotle dates?

Answer 11

384-322 BC

Question 12

What was Aristotle’s school called?

Answer 12

Peripatetic school –after his tendency to pace as he talked.

Question 13

What does Aristotle argue in “Politics”?

Answer 13

That the city-state is the basis for virtue and wellbeing and that democracy is preferable to oligarchy.

Question 14

What is ‘civil society’?

Answer 14

Sum of non-government and private institutions –businesses, families, etc.

Question 15

What do liberal theorists propose as the role of the political?

Answer 15

That it be narrow, and stay out of private activities such as business and family life, as it can prevent people from acting as they choose.

Question 16

What’s the difference between a procedural and substantive consensus?

Answer 16

A procedural consensus is a willingness to make decisions through a process of consultation and bargaining.

A substantive consensus is an overlap of ideological positions that reflect agreement about broad policy goals.

Question 17

What is Bernard Crick’s definition of politics?

Answer 17

Using conciliation and debate (rather than violence) to distribute power to groups in proportion to their importance to community.

Question 18

What are the 3 faces of political power?

Answer 18

1 Power to influence decision-making e.g., the stick, the deal, the kiss (obligations, loyalty) (Keith Boulding)

2 Power to set agenda –ability to prevent decisions being made or even discusssed

3 Power as thought control –ideological indoctrination, etc.

Question 19

Power can be said to be exercised whenever A gets B to do something that B…

Answer 19

Power can be said to be exercised whenever A gets B to do something that B would not otherwise have done.

Question 20

What is meant by the radical feminist slogan, “the personal is the political”?

Answer 20

If politics is the exercise of power, this can take place in personal spaces in the subjugation of women at home. This private patriarchal structure then reproduces male dominance in public life.

Question 21

What do Marxist and Feminist views of politics have in common?

Answer 21

Both view politics as form of subjugation – of proletariat or women –but also of means of liberation.

Question 22

Why do second-wave feminists object to the political/private divide?

Answer 22

If politics and public life is dominated by men, this means women will be excluded.

Question 23

Death of Socrates date?

Answer 23

399BC

Question 24

What was Plato’s political philosophy?

Answer 24

Power should be vested in hands of educated elite – ‘philosopher kings’

Question 25

What did Plato think of democracy?

Answer 25

Was critical of it, as uneducated people should not determine affairs of state.

Question 26

What is institutionalism?

Answer 26

The study of the assumptions, sets of rules and practices of institutions

Question 27

What is the prisoner’s dilemma?

Answer 27

Scenario in which two prisoners can:

Individually confess –confessor goes free, other gets 10 years
Both confess –6 years each
Not confess –1 year each

Question 28

What is Max Weber’s idea of an ideal type?

Answer 28

Max Weber’s ideal type is a sociological concept that creates an exaggerated theoretical model to allow comparison and analysis of phenomena for analysis.

For example, ‘bureaucracy’ emphasizes hierarchy, rules, and impersonality.