KEY CONCEPTS lec 4

Question 1

Power

Answer 1

french ‘pouvoir’ = to be able, have an ability or capacity

• ability to convince others to do something, persuasion and negotiation of something you otherwise wouldn’t want to do (soft power)
• ability to force others to do something; coercive; military threats (hard power)

Question 2

Modern theories of state powers

Answer 2

all theories see power as something that can be used against citizens in a coercive/repressive (check notes)
1- conservative/realpolitik: power of state, law and order, force (hard power), hobbes, machiavelli

2. ir realists: hard power defines everything, economic and military power paramount, hard power
3. classic liberals: limited state intervention
4. marxist power: power is illusionary and oppressive and exists in economic realm; state withers away through revolution

Question 3

Authority

Answer 3

legitimate exercise of power’

• authority without power = legitimacy over people but no ability to exercise it due to the lack of gov’t apparatus
• power without authority = authoritarian regime
• power with authority=legitimate and supported by the people

Question 4

Sovereignty

Answer 4

supreme power of lawmaking within territory’

1. relationship to other states
2. relationship to citizens and subgroups within a nation vis a vis citizens
   - importance of sovereignty: internal, counters parallel authority within states; external, protects smaller states from larger ones

Question 5

Weber’s typology of Authority

Answer 5

rational legal authority (e.g modern state) = rule by virtue of holding office; rule of laws is the basis of authority

• traditional authority (hereditary monarch) = rule by virtue of inherited, traditional, patriarchal right;
• charismatic authority = rule based on exceptional qualities of a person; seen as prophet, hero, saviour

Question 6

marxist theory of politics

Answer 6

gramsci’s ‘false consciousness’: ability of ruling class to persuade working class ideologically through HEGEMONY (a form of domination that appears to be legitimate to this within the system);

marcuse argues large part of populations thinks that the state is neutral and in some cases beneficial for them, when in reality it just exterts authority against their interests

Question 7

Weber on when each authority is used

Answer 7

1. traditional authority: used in traditional customs/values today largely symbolic rather than powerful
2. charismatic authority: emerges at times of crisis; unreliable form of authority since disappearance/discrediting of individual immediately leads to instability
3. legal/rational: status of ruler’s office as part of system with constitutional rules OR a religious text… tendency of modern world towards this