Lecture 1 Flashcards
What is Politics?
Politics = Everything (the decisions we make), who gets what , when and how.
-HOW: Decides how the “pie” is divided, the who gets what and how much
-WHEN: when represents now, don’t know when they get what they want.
EX: not everyone is born wealthy, some have to work.
-Politics is about the AUTHORITATIVE allocation of social values, goods and services.
What is Government?
Government = Structure
What is force when it comes to government?
All governments use force but they cannot always rely on force.
- It cannot be a means of reinforcing authority
- LEGITIMACY & SOVEREIGNTY helps governments maintain authority.
What is legitimacy when it comes to government?
Legitimacy gives people a sense of legality, which takes a long time to acquire.
-The more legitimate a government = less force used
What is sovereignty when it comes to government?
Sovereignty really means “the people” because they ultimately make the decisions.
- Sovereignty has changed since after the French Revolution because they took away monarchy (Kings/Queens).
- Napoleon crowned himself, separating himself from the church hierarchy.
- This what started the separation of church and state (secular)
- -At the end of the day their is a mutual respect where religion and government find a common ground.
What is Totalitarianism?
Soviet governments or COMMUNIST governments wanted to control every aspect of life, they removes the element of “choice.”
- People are taught to believe they have choice but in reality they don’t.
- Philosopher Karl Marx had a complete picture of life. He lived through the industrial revolution (Knew pros and cons). He came up with the term PROLETARIAT which is an industrial worker that lived off the government like roaches.
Who is Lenin?
Lenin had read Marx’s ideas.
- Lenin believed that Russia’s problems could be solved through communism.
- He believed he could reform Russia overnight by creating a political party.
- When WWI broke out Russia joined in.
- The CZAR(leader) resigned making Russia weak and continuing the war, this is when Lenin came into Russia with the help of Germany and established communism and took power.
Who is Trotsky?
After Lenin died, Trotsky and Stalin came to power, Stalin defeated Trotsky then sought vengeance against him and all his opponents and enemies.
Who is Gorbachev?
Gorbachev became leader in 1985 and was the 1st leader to have an education after Lenin.
- Soviet Union was a society frozen in time
- He came in with the Soviet’s economy and technology was falling behind.
- They needed to change so they adopted a new political and economic system,
What is Economic in Russian?
PERESTROIKA
What is Political in Russian?
GLASNOST
What did political reform do to Russia after Gorbachev came in?
Political reform meant the police needed to lay off and give the citizens space.
What did economic restructuring do to Russia after Gorbachev came in?
Economic Restructuring required money and a plan.
- This actually made the economy go down because it decreased productivity because the new political reform allowed people to finally speak up
- 70yr experiment ended in failure
- The problems are still there today.
What is Authoritarianism?
Similar to totalitarianism; restrict assembly, speech.
- Elections are fraudulent
- Government comes to power using force by a “gun”(violence)
- -COUP D’ETAT = military power
- Military uses power and force, no real structure
- Found in Africa, Middle East, South America and parts of Asia (3rd worlds)
- Things are disorganized, lack of political freedom
- Countries joined the non-aligned movement (countries that didn’t want to change government parties (communism/socialism)
What is the DIVIDED RULE TACTIC?
When a country had more than 1 group of people. The minorities rebelled to have their voice heard and be just as equal as the majority in a country.
