Authority and the State Flashcards
Power relations among people or other social actors
Politics
Justifiable right to exercise power
Authority
Authority that rests on the personal appeal of an individual leader
Charismatic authority
Authority that rests on appeals to the past of traditions
Traditional authority
Authority based on legal, impersonal rules; the rule rules
Legal-rational authority
Clear, rule-governed procedures used repeatedly for decision making
Routinization
Ever-expanding process of ordering or organizing
Rationalization
Legal-rational organization or mode of administration that governs with reference to formal rules and roles and emphasizes meritocracy
Bureaucracy
Process of breaking up work into specific delimited tasks
Specialization
Methods of labor management introduced by Fredric Winslow Taylor to streamline the processes of mass production in which each worker repeatedly performs one specific task
Taylorism
Society that assigns social status, power, and economic rewards on achievement not ascribed personal attributes or favoritism
Meritocracy
An experiment devised in 1961 by Stanley Milgram to see how far ordinary people would go to obey a scientific authority figure
Milgram experiment
Ability to carry out one’s own will despite resistance
Power
Probability that a command with specific content will be obeyed by a given group of people
Domination
As defined by Max Weber, a human community that claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory
State
Use of force to get others to do what you want
Coercion
Although the state’s authority derives form the implicit threat of physical force resorting to physical coercion strips the state of all legitimate authority
Paradox of authority
System in which each state is recognized as territorially sovereign by fellow states
International state system
System in which the state is responsible for the well-being of its citizens
Welfare state
Rights guaranteed to each-law abiding citizen in a nation-state
Citizenship rights
Right guaranteeing a citizen’s personal freedom from interference
Civil rights
Rights guaranteeing a citizen’s ability to participate in politics
Political rights
Rights guaranteeing a citizen’s protection by the state
Social rights
First dimension- Different agendas clash, conflict results, one side prevails
Second dimension- Different agendas clash, one side is convinced it’s a losing battle
Third dimension- Different agendas clash, one side is shaped by the desires of social actors
Lukes’ Three-Dimensional Power
Use of military or economic force to influence behavior
Hard power
System of government wherein power theoretically lies with the people
Democracy
Form of government that restricts the right to political participation to a small group or even to a single individual
Dictatorship
Study of strategic decisions made under conditions of uncertainty and interdependence
Game theory
Difficult in organizing large groups because of the tendency of some individuals to freeload or slack off
Collective action problem
Action that benefits a group but does not directly benefit the individual performing the action
Altruism
Organization that seeks to gain power in a government
Political party
Organization that seeks to gain power in government and influence policy without campaigning for direct election or appointment to office
Interest group
Any activity that has the intent or effect of influencing government action
Political participation
