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2.1: Political Science: Summary of reading material and lectures
This is a complete and up-to-date summary of the relevant chapters of the required readings used in the course Political Science, plus notes from the lectures.
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Public Administration/Sociology/MISOC: Summary of reading material and lectures2.1 - Political Science
Part 1: Introduction to Political Science
1) Hague 1: the foundation of Political Science
Like any other social science, the basis of political science rests on the definition of certain
concepts and the distinctions between those. Government consists of the institutions and
structures through which societies are governed. The term is often misattributed to just the
highest officials within the public sphere. A classic (yet academically disputed and criticized)
case for the need of government was made by Hobbes in Leviathan. Within a democracy,
government is influenced by the political system: the forces through which society makes
collective decisions. Governance, on the other hand, is the process by which decisions,
laws and policies are made, either with or without formal input. This term is used when
qualifying the effectiveness of a leader’s rule.
Politics are the collective process by which people negotiate and compete in the process of
making and executing collective decisions. Such decisions, once taken, become
authoritative policy for a given group. The boundaries of politics are not quite as precise as
scientists would like them to be. Lasswell, for example, sees politics as the competition for
power: the capacity to bring out intended effects, through both violent and nonviolent
means. Lukes distinguishes three dimensions of power:
1. He whose preferences prevail when conflict occurs, is powerful. The question here is
who wins the debate. In democracies, this is decided by voting behavior and
parliamentary debate. In authoritarian regimes, the elite always wins by using
violence.
2. He who controls whether preferences are expressed and get a place on the political
agenda, is powerful. This dimension is all about the power of agenda-setting, which is
held by government, citizens and parliament in democracies, but again only by the
elite in authoritarian regimes.
3. He who shapes preferences, is powerful, and more so than those who hold power in
the first two dimensions. This dimension concerns the existence of social cleavages,
ideology and political communication, through open and social channels in
democracies, but through propaganda in authoritarian regimes.
These dimensions are closely related, as the formulation of preferences leads to expression
of these, which in turn leads to certain outcomes in the form of policies. Within authoritarian
regimes, the elite stands at the center of all dimensions, while these powers are diffused to a
greater extent within democracies.
Two concepts lie at the heart of our understanding of government and politics:
1. Authority: broader than power, authority is the right to rule and, as such, creates its
own power, so long as people accept that those in authority have the right to exercise
rule. Russian power stops at the Ukrainian border, because Ukrainians do not
recognize the authority of the Russians. Weber stated that authority can be garnered
through an appeal on tradition, charisma or (legal) rationality.
, 2. Legitimacy: the condition of being legitimate, which is based on authority and public
faith. Those subject to one’s rule need to recognize their right to make decisions. A
government is legitimate when its power is accepted by those subject to its rule.
A major subfield of political science is comparative politics: the study of government and
politics across different countries. We try to better understand them by comparing them on
the basis of contrasts and similarities. This allows us to learn about unfamiliar places, better
understand our own system and even predict the outcome of political events (although not
always reliably). Furthermore, comparing political systems allows us to classify them in
certain typologies, centered around common features. A well-known example of such a
typology is the Three Worlds system, with the liberal, capitalist First World, the communist
Second World and the underdeveloped Third World. The end of the Cold War meant the end
of this typology, which has since in some ways made place for (imperfect) measures like the
Democracy Index and the Freedom in the World index, or even the gross domestic output.
A democracy, although the exact definition is not clear, is often referred to as a political
system whose government is based on an open, equal mandate from all qualified citizens of
a certain territory. This is reached through open government, free elections, freedom of
speech and the protection of human rights. Half of humans today live in a democracy, while
many other states are undergoing a process of democratization (although other states,
such as Russia and China are moving towards authoritarianism). Some forms of democracy
are:
- Direct democracy, in which all members of a community take part in making
decisions. This form was prominent in ancient Athens. This form has become hard to
achieve in modern society, although it we may be able to realize it through
e-democracy; democratic expression and decision-making through the internet.
- Representative democracy, in which citizens elect others to make decisions for
them, often in the form of a parliament.
- Liberal democracy, in which the scope of democracy is limited by the protection of
individual rights and other civil liberties, often under a constitution, and in which
people, in the spirit of liberalism, seek a limited government. Checks and
balances are often set up to prevent any misuse of excessive power, either by
government or by (a majority of) the people. Not all democracies are inherently
liberal, as many incorporate structural violence: forms of oppression built into the
system of government.
Authoritarianism is quite the opposite of democracy, although both forms contain elements of
the other. Authoritarian leaders, for example, might operate without limits, but need to retain
the support of their allies, just like democratic leaders. Again, multiple forms of authoritarian
rule exist:
- Hybrid regimes are political systems that appear to be democratic, but the
‘democratic’ elements of which, such as elections, free media and the constitution,
are manipulated to keep elite rulers in power. Turkey is a popular example of a hybrid
regime.
- Authoritarian regimes, based on submission to the authority of ruling elites. Other
features are limited political plurality, centralized control, intolerance of opposition
and human rights and quite often despotism or dictatorship: the abuse of absolute
, power, often through arbitrary choices and misuse of violence. Authoritarian leaders
often hold power through the military, coercion (as opposed to persuasion),
patronage (rewarding those who support the regime with state resources) and the
media.
2) Lecture 1: introductions
Political science is the study of politics: the process by which people negotiate, compete and
make and execute shared and collective decisions. We do this by examining political
institutions, processes and behavior. Our reasons for doing so are that we want to
understand the behaviour of politicians and citizens when interacting with politics, the
consequences of transformations such as the rise of illiberal democracy and populism and
how political information should be interpreted.
Political systems are bigger than just citizens and their government. For example, we can
think about supranational organisations, political parties, interest groups and the media.
Governments, however, continue to play a central role in politics and the study of this
subject. The reason for this, according to Hobbes, is that government is needed to protect
mankind against its presumed state of natural warfare, although the production of collective
goods also plays a role.
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