The Logic Of The Field Flashcards
Market failure
Allocation of good and services by a free market is inefficient. This inefficiency often leads to misallocation of resources, where individual incentives do not lead to optimal societal outcomes.
Public goods, information asymmetry, cost free pollution (negative externalities), traffic jams (congestion externalities) on the highway.
Why is money-power analogy problematic?
Money is fungible but power is contextual
Money is fungible: can easily be exchanged for another things of equal value (consistently aceros different contexts)
Power is contextual: is situational and depends on the context in which it is applied. Power may come from different sources (political influence, social status, physical force) and its effectiveness or meaning can vary depending on the environment or people involved.
Because money works universally (fungible) while power is situational and varies (contextual), the analogy between the two is problematic. They operate fundamentally in different ways, even though both are often linked to influence and control.
It can be irrational to reciprocate cooperation if you would be better off if everyone cooperated.
Game theory and cooperation. Prisoner’s dilemma. Cooperatives dilemas: individual rational behavior may lead to a situation where it’s in your own short term interest not to cooperate (free riding or defecting ), even if the collective long-term benefit would be greater if everyone did cooperate (or reciprocate).
Smaller groups are more likely to cooperate
Aristóteles: man is by nature a social and political animal (zoom politikon)
Human beings are inherently inclined to live in communities and engaged in political life.
Social nature: human are naturally inclined to form relationships and live in social groups .
Political nature: people seek to create and live under systems of governance and organization.
Community and interaction: living in a polis (city-state) is a fundamental aspect of human nature. The polis is more than a physical place, it’s a community where individual can achieve their full potential through interaction with others and participation in political life.
Ethical and moral development: political community plays a crucial role in this
Variety of way humans can achieve social organization
Though …
Exchange and markets (supply and demand)
Moral suasion (social norms and campaigns)
Authority and government (formal institutions and structures of power; rules, laws and policies enforced by governing bodies)
What is political science
Study of politics, government institutions and governing process
What is politics according to Carl Schmitt
Friends and enemies: this distinction is fundamental for politics. Political identity is shaped by this division, as it defines who belongs to a community and who is considered and outsider or an adversary.
Constitutive of collective identity: political is not just about governance or policy but about the unity of a group that arises from shared identity and mutual recognition of threats.
What is politics according to Harald Laswell?
Politics is who gets what, when and how.
Distribution of resources: politics is fundamentally about decision making regarding what receives what resources (wealth, power or rights) and the process by which these decisions are made.
Politics process: pragmatic nature of political behavior and the importance of analyzing the mechanism behind political decisions.
What is politics according to Hans Morgenthau?
The struggle for power
Power dynamics: struggle for power among individual and groups.
Realism : competition and conflict, pursuit of power as a central motive
What is politics according to David Easton?
Authoritative distribution of values
Authoritative decisions: process with values are distributed through authoritative means. The role of institutions and governance.
Value allocation: authoritative allocation, institutional aspect.
Power and authority
Power: ability to influence or control other
Authority: legitimate right to exercise power
Definition of power according to Max Weber
First face of power
The probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry on his own will despite resistanfe, regardless of the basis on with this probability rests.
Power is the likelihood that one actor can impose their will (probability of carrying out one’s will) on another despite opposition. The potential of one individual or group to achieve their objective, irrespectively of the methods used to attain that power (power can derive from various sources).
Definition of power according to Robert Dahl
First face of power.
Power is the relation among people. A has power over B to the extent that A can get B do something that B would not otherwise do.
Observable outcomes of power dynamics, power manifests in specific actions and decisions, where one actor prevails over another through coercion.
Definition of power according to Bachrach and Baratz
Second face or power.
Critique the definitions provided by Weber and Dahl, too simplistic. Power extends beyond observable decisions and actions.
Some issues remain unvoiced because individual believe that advocating for them would be futile, given the dominance of certain groups.
Power is the ability to exclude certain issues from public discussions. Power is exerted though agenda control, limiting the scope of decision making
Non decisions and not events: situations that potential issues that could lead to change are ignored or suppressed within the political discourse. Shapes what is consider effective political discourse, effectively silencing alternative viewpoints.
What is power according to Steven Lukes
Third face of power, which highlight power’s role in shaping ideology and perceptions, often operating in less visible ways.
Power shapes the preferences and interests of others, even if they are unaware of it.
Involves the subconscious of unacknowledged interests of social actors.
Unconscious interest: individual are unaware of they own interest and the way power structures affects them.
