Summaries of Chapters 1-19 of Introduction to Political Science year 1. The summaries include information from the book as well as lecture notes. In addition, at the end, you can find short essays about important topics that could be used in the mid-term exam.
Politics is : the activity through which people make the general rules under which they live,
which means that it’s linked to the phenomena of conflict and cooperation. So politics is a
search for conflict resolution rather than its achievement and the inescapable presence of
diversity and scarcity ensures that politics is an inevitable feature of the human condition.
Politics is often thought of as a ‘’dirty’’ word. For example, Samuel Johnson dismissed
politics as ‘’nothing more than a means of rising in the world’’, while the US historian Henry
Adams summed up politics as ‘’the systematic organization of hatreds’’.
Two broad conceptions of politics:
1. Politics is associated with an arena or a location in which case behavior becomes
‘’political’’ because of where it takes place.
2. Politics as a process or mechanism, in which case ‘’political’’ behavior is behavior
that exhibits distinctive characteristics or qualities, and so can take place in any social
context.
From these two approaches of defining politics we can extract 4 definitions of politics:
Politics as an arena- the art of government and public affairs.
Politics as a process- compromise and consensus, and power and the distribution of
resources.
Politics as the art of government
‘’Politics is not a science but an art.’’ (Chancellor Bismarck).
The word ‘’politics’’ comes from ‘’polis’’, which means city-state. The modern form of this
definition is ‘’what concerns the state.’’ This brings to reflection of machinery of
government. This view is advanced by Davis Easton who defined politics as the
‘’authoritative allocation of values.’’
Authoritative values are those that are widely accepted in society and in this view, politics is
associated with policy, that is, with formal or authoritative decisions that establish a plan of
action for the community.
Politics is what takes places within a polity- a system of social organization centered on the
machinery of government. Politics is therefor limited by a specific group of people-
politicians. This means that most people and most institutions are ‘’outside’’ politics.
The link between politics and the state explains why negative images are often attached to
politicians. However, there is a general acceptance that they will always be with us. Without
some kind of mechanism society would disintegrate into a civil war.
Politics as public affairs
The distinction between the political and the non-political coincides with the division
between public sphere of life and private sphere. In ‘’Politics’’ Aristotle declared that ‘’man
is by nature a political animal’’, which means that only within a political community the
human beings can have a good life. It is what Aristotle called ‘’the master science’’.
Two views of the public/private divide:
1. Public: the State (apparatus of government)
Private: civil society: autonomous bodies-businesses, trade unions, clubs, families,
etc.
2. Public realm: politics, commerce, work, art, culture
Personal realm: family and domestic life
,Politics as compromise and consensus
This conception of politics relates not to the arena within which politics is conducted but to
the way in which decisions are made. Politics is seen as a particular means of resolving
conflict: that is, by compromise, conciliation and negotiation rather than conflict and power.
This ‘’political’’ solution is opposite to the ‘’military’’ solution.
In this view, the key to politics is a wide dispersal of power. Such a view of politics reflects a
deep commitment to liberal-rationalist principles. However, this model is biased towards
the form of politics that takes place in Western democracies and it has little to tell us about
one-party states or military regimes.
Politics as power
Rather than confining politics to a particular sphere, this view sees politics at work in all
social activities and in every corner of human existence. Politics is, in essence, power.
Feminists and Marxists: radical feminists hold that society is patriarchal, in that woman are
subordinated to male power; Marxists argued that politics in a capitalist society is
characterized by the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie.
What is political ideology?
The term ‘’ideology’’ means ‘’science of ideas’’, but a more enduring meaning was assigned
to the term in the 19th century by Karl Marx. For him, ideology amounted to the ideas of the
ruling class, so the defining feature of ideology in the Marxist sense is that it is false- it
confuses subordinate classes by concealing from them the contradictions on which all class
societies are based. Marx insisted that his ideas were scientific, not ideological.
The emergence of totalitarian dictatorships encouraged some writers to view ideology as a
‘’closed’’ system of thought, which refuses to tolerate opposing ideas.
For this reason, liberalism (which focuses on individual freedom), conservatism and
democratic socialism are clearly not ideologies. These doctrines are ‘’open’’ by permitting
free debate and criticism.
Conservatists have traditionally dismissed the notion that they subscribe to an ideology,
preferring instead to describe conservatism as an ‘’attitude of mind’’ and placing faith in
pragmatism and tradition. This comes from conservative skepticism about the value of
rationalism, born out of the belief that the world is beyond the capacities of the human mind.
Political ideologies arose out of the transition from feudalism to industrial capitalism.
The earliest ideologies developed as contrasting attempts to shape emerging industrial
society. This meant that the central theme in ideological debate was the battle between
capitalism and socialism, which means that political ideology had a strong economic focus.
Liberalism
Liberalism is the ideology of the industrialized West and is often portrayed as the ‘’meta-
ideology’’. Early liberalism reflected the aspirations of a rising industrial middle class, so
liberalism and capitalism have been closely linked.
The classical liberalism attacked absolutism, instead advocating representative government.
Liberalism supported laissez-fair economic and condemned all form of government
intervention.
Key ideas:
Individualism- it reflects a belief in the supreme importance of the human individual as
opposed to any social group. Human beings are seen as individuals, which implies that they
,are of equal moral worth, and the liberal goal is to construct a society in which individuals
can flourish and develop.
Freedom: Individual liberty is the core value of liberalism. This arises from a belief in the
individual and the desire to ensure that each person is able to act as he or she chooses.
Nevertheless, liberals advocate ‘’freedom under the law’’ in order to prevent individuals
from threatening the freedom of others.
Reason: Liberals believe that the world has a rational structure, and this can be uncovered
through the exercise of human reason. This implies the faith in the ability of individuals to
make wise judgments on their own.
Equality: Liberalism implies the belief that individuals are born equal. However, as
individuals do not possess the same levels of talent. liberals do not endorse equality of
outcome, but equality of opportunity. Liberals therefor support meritocracy.
Toleration: they believe that pluralism is positively healthy
Consent: In the liberal view, authority and social relationships should always be based on
consent or willing agreement.
Constitutionalism: They believe in limited government through fragmentation of power,
creation of checks and balances and the establishment of written constitutions.
The classical liberalism is characterized by a deeply unsympathetic attitude towards the state
and all form of government intervention. Tom Pain describes the state as a necessary evil-
necessary because it establishes order and security, but evil because it imposes a collective
will on society, thus limiting freedom of the individual.
Modern liberalism is more sympathetic towards the state intervention. From their perspective
freedom doesn’t mean just being left alone, but its rather linked to personal
development and the flourishing of the individual- this is social or welfare liberalism.
Conservatism
Conservatism arose against the French Revolution.
Key ideas:
Tradition: the central theme of conservatism is the ‘’desire to conserve’’, which is closely
linked to virtues of tradition, respect of established customs and institutions that have
endured during time.
Pragmatism: conservatives emphasize the limitations of human rationality, which arise
from the infinite complexity of the world in which we live. They place faith in experience,
history and pragmatism- the belief that action should be shaped by practical circumstances
and practical goals.
Human imperfection: Their view of human nature is very pessimistic.
Organicism: conservatives see society as an organic whole. It is structured by natural
necessity, with its various institutions, contributing to the stability of the society.
Hierarchy: Gradations of social position are natural and inevitable in an organic society.
Nevertheless, the hierarchy and inequality do not lead to conflict, because society is bound
together by mutual obligations.
, Authority: authority is always exercised from above, providing leadership and support for
those who lack the knowledge.
Property: property ownership is vital because it gives people security and a measure of
independence from government, and it encourages them to respect the law and the property
of others.
The One-Nation tradition embodies a disposition towards social reform and a pragmatic
attitude towards economic policy. This is seen in the middle-way approach, which abandoned
laissez-fair capitalism and state socialism and central planning. The solution lies in a blend
of market competition and government regulation.
The New Right represents an attempt to combine neoliberalism, which denies government
intervention and praises individualism, and neoconservatism, which aims to restore and
return to traditional values, like those linked to family, religion and the nation.
Socialism
It developed as a reaction against industrial capitalism.
Key ideas:
Community: the vision of human beings as social creatures linked by the existence of
common humanity. Nurture over nature.
Fraternity: as human beings share a common humanity, they are bound together by a sense of
comradeship. Cooperation over competition.
Social equality: equality is the central value- equality of outcome over equality of
opportunity. While Marxists have believed in absolute social equality, brought about by the
collectivization of production wealth, social democrats favor material inequalities, being
more concerned with equal opportunities than outcomes.
Need: material benefits should be distributed on the basis of need.
Social class: traditionally associated with the interests of an oppressed and exploited working
class, which is the agent of social change.
Common ownership: the socialist case for common ownership is that it is a means of using
material resources to the common good. Private property is seen to promote selfishness
and social division.
Socialism vs Capitalism
In capitalist economies, people have strong incentives to work hard, increase efficiency, and
produce superior products. By rewarding ingenuity and innovation, the market maximizes
economic growth and individual prosperity while providing a variety of goods and
services for consumers. By encouraging the production of desirable goods and services and
discouraging the production of unwanted or unnecessary ones, the marketplace self-
regulates, leaving less room for government interference and mismanagement.
But under capitalism, because market mechanisms are mechanical, rather
than normative, there are no guarantees that each person's basic needs will be met. In
theory, economic inequity is reduced, along with economic insecurity. Basic necessities are
provided. The government itself can produce the goods people require to meet their needs,
even if the production of those goods does not result in a profit.
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