POLS101 Flashcards
Learn about the basics of political theory
Revolution
○ Rapid, fundamental and violent domestic change
○ Monumental, foundational political events
3 types of authority
○ traditional
○ charismatic
○ rational legal
Power
○ “the chance of a man to realize their own will in a communal action even against the resistance of others who are participating in the action” — Weber
○ capacity or ability that each of us has to create and act
Politics
○ The means by which form is given to the life of a people
○ A freedom people grant themselves to rule themselves — Aristotle
○ the activity of “striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state” — Weber
State (Weber)
A human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory
Traditional authorithy
○ Long-standing beliefs and practices of a society
○ reasons: inheritance and religious beliefs
Rational legal authority
○ Laws and rules
○ the authority does not reside in the individual who happens to be in office but in the office
Charismatic authority
○ less stable
○ eventually turns to more stable types of authority
Clinton mandate
○ multilateral agreements and disregard for international law and treaties
○ public diplomacy wasn’t a high priority
Bush
○ hard power
○ dismissive attitude toward international institutions
○ unilateralism
Obama time
○ smart power
○ US leading by example
Hard power
○ ability to use a country’s resources (economic, military) to influence other factors
○ the application of military power to secure a national objective
Smart Power
○ combination of hard and soft power
○ involve the strategic use of diplomacy and persuasion in a cost effective way
Soft power
○ drawing on the resources that make a country naturally attractive to the world
○ the ability to attract or co-opt rather than coerce
○ many of its critical resources are outside the control of governments
South Korea Soft Power
○ widely praised Pandemic response
○ successful pop culture prestige
○ government uses popular artists for diplomatic reasons
South Korea hard power
○ tremendous economic growth
○ strong military
Thomas Hobbes
○ english philosopher and political theorist
○ wrote the leviathan
Cold war
○ 1947 - 1962
○ open yet restricted rivalry between the US and USSR
○ used political, economic and propaganda fronts
Clinton’s foreign policy
- multilateral engagements but disregard for multilateral engagements
- public diplomacy was not a high priority
Bush Jr foreign policy
- unilateralism
- promotion of American values
- hard power
Obama foreign policy
: : smart power
: : leading by example
American exeptionalism
: : America is inherently different from other nations
: : declaration of independence putting the basis on America’s .uniquely. judeo Christian and religious character
Militarism
: : predominance of the armed forces in the administration or policy of the state
: : belief or desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military and use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values
Pax Americana
: : relative peace in the western hemisphere and later the world after the end of WWII
: : Marshakk plan
: : US occupies a special niche among developed nations
Wilsonianism
: : conviction that a leading priority of US foreign policy should be the promotion of democratic government around the world
American revolution
: : 1775 - 1783
: : American colonists VS UK
: : resulted in US independence
