UNIT 1 Andrew Heywood Flashcards
What is politics ?
Politics is the activity through which people make, preserve and amend the general rules under which they live.
Explain how politics is linked to the phenomenon of conflict and cooperation.
A. Existence of rival opinions, different wants, competing needs and interests that guarantee disagreement about rules under which people live.
B. People recognize that in order to influence these rules or ensure that they are upheld, they must work with others.
Hannah Arendt’s - ‘Acting in concert’
What is the heart of politics ?
The process of conflict resolution; rival views and competing interests are reconciled with one another. Politics is better thought of as a search for conflict resolution than its achievement as not all conflicts can be resolved.
2 major problems addressed when attempting to clarify the meaning of ‘politics’.
- It is a ‘loaded’ term - The mass of associations it has when used in everyday language. Politics usually has a lot of preconceptions; there is a lot of bias + Politics is considered to be a ‘dirty’ word.
- Even respected authorities cannot agree what the subject is about. Defined in multiple ways: exercise of power, allocation of scarce resources, science of govt., practice of deception and manipulation.
Two broad approaches to defining politics
- Associated with arena/location - the art of government, public affairs. It becomes institution rather than a process. For example, Behaviouralism, rational choice theory, institutionalism (as a noun). Behavior becomes politics because of where it takes place.
- Viewed as a process - Compromise and consensus, power and distribution of resources, it is a process or a mechanism. For example, feminism, Marxism, post-positivist approaches. ‘Political’ behaviour is behavior that exhibits distinctive characteristics or qualities and can take place in any or all social contexts
Explain Aristotle’s approach to normative structure.
- just v. unjust
- rule for all v. rule for a few
- rule by one, few and many
- under just - kingship, aristocracy, and polity
- under unjust - tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy
- Aristotle favored aristocracy (aristoi - best) as he thought that people who ruled were educated and ‘fit’ to rule the masses
- He disliked democracy as he thought that the people were not educated to vote or that they would vote regardless of whether the rulers were educated or not
- Democracy also did not allow slaves or women to vote in that point of time
- He followed a particular schema and believed in justice.
Is politics a study of government/governance/governing?
Government - Administration
Governance - Way that it is administered
Governing - Process of governance
Polis - city state
The study of politics is, in essence, to study government or more broadly to study the exercise of authority
David Easton - ‘authoritative allocation of values’; how the government responds under pressure from the citizens in the form of benefits, rewards or penalties; offers a restrictive view of politics as politics is what happens within the state and happens in cabinet meetings, etc. and are limited to a very few people. Hence, most people, institutions, etc. are considered to be outside the realm of politics.
Even further narrowed - politicians : political :: civil servants : non-political
Eg. judge’s examples
Politics is considered to be a way of manipulating and deceiving the masses and is considered a ‘dirty word’.
The task is therefore not to abolish, politicians and bring politics to an end but, rather, to ensure that politics is conducted
within a framework of checks and constraints that guarantee that governmental power is not abused.
Politics in the public and private sphere of life ?
The institutions of the state (the apparatus of government, the courts, the police, the army, the social security system and so forth) can be regarded as ‘public’ in the sense that they are responsible for the collective organization of community life.
Civil society consists of institutions such as the family and kinship groups, private businesses, trade unions, clubs, community groups and so on, that are ‘private’ in the sense that they are set up and funded by individual citizens to satisfy their own interests, rather than those of the larger society.
‘Political’ v ‘non-political’
‘Political’ v ‘personal’
Politics as power ?
Negative views of feminists and Marxists.
Oppression, subjugation, exploitation
Positive view as something that challenges oppression, injustice and domination
(Marx - proletariat overthrowing the bourgeoisies; Feminists - gender relations to be reordered)
Normative approach ?
How it should be; not what it is; prescriptive; make judgements and recommendations
a. Plato
b. Aristotle
Plato’s normative structure ?
Bottom - money-seekers or farmers, artisans, etc.
Middle - glory-seekers or warriors who weren’t allowed to live a material life
Apex had philosopher kings and queens who used reason
He included women in his model
Empirical Approach ?
What is, and not what should be
Deals with how to hold on to power
Descriptive
Analyze and explain
Machiavelli and Kautilya
Positivism ?
Auguste Comte
Making social sciences a science, i.e., use observation, testing, and not through rationalism
Behaviouralism
David Easton
BF Skinner
Mid-20th century
Studying observable quantitative behavior
Empirically verify it
Survey-research method
Eg. voting behavior, lobbyists behavior
Criticism - Value free, free floating
Rationalism/rational choice theory
Using econ to study pol sci like Game Theory
Prisoner’s dilemma
Criticism is that it overestimates human rationality and ignores the fact that humans may not have a clear set of goals and rarely make informed decisions
