A comprehensive guide for the course Introduction to Political Science. It is a must have document for visual learners as I have color coded the notes and included handy diagrams.
Topic: Chapter 1: Key Concepts (Hague, Harrop and McCormick)
Summarize key ideas/ main Notes
points (Tips: Skip a space between ideas/topics and use abbreviations)
Comparative Government and Key concepts: an overview
Politics ● In the study of politics it is important to distinguish between a ‘concept’ and
a ‘conception.’
○ Concept: A term, idea, or category
○ Conception: The manner in which something is understood or
interpreted [a conception builds on a concept].
Social Science: The study of human society and of the structured interactions
Government and Governance among people within society. Distinct from the natural science such as physics and
biology.
Government: the arena for decision-making and enforcing collective decisions
● People often refer to prime ministers, presidents as the ‘government’
however groups such as the police, judges and armed forces also hold
power in governing.
Thomas Hobbes ○ Government is the entire community of institutions endowed with
public authority.
Government: The institutions and offices through which societies are governed.
Also used to describe the group of people who govern (e.g. the Japanese
government), a specific administration (e.g. the Putin government), the form of the
system of rule (e.g. centralized government), and the nature and direction of the
administration of a community (e.g. good government).
● Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher who lived during the English
Civil War [the King against the parliament].
, ○ Thomas Hobbes argues for why we should obey rulers even if this
government is not always legit. We obey in order to avoid chaos.
○ Thomas Hobbes believed that life was “short, nasty and brutish”
○ He believed that the government protects people and that’s why
people should give up all their rights to the government.
■ This would then not only lead to peacefulness and security
but also mutually beneficial cooperation.
■ The dangers of Hobbes argument is that the government may
gain too much power or abuse its power.
● This connects with Plato’s question: Who guards the
guards?
Political System: The interactions and organizations (including but not restricted
to government) through which a society reaches and successfully enforces
collective decisions. Interchangeably used with the word regime a lthough the latter
tends to have negative connotations.
● E.g. The Dutch political system is more than just the Dutch government.
Governance: The process by which decisions, laws and policies are made, with or
without the input of formal institutions.
● Governance can indicate how well the country is being ruled [the quality of
ruling].
● Governance is the act of policy making, law making, which is more
important for economic development than the government institutions
themselves.
Politics Politics: The process by which people negotiate and compete in the process of
making and executing shared or collective decisions.
Aspects of politics:
1. Politics involves multiple people
2. Politics involves decisions making that affects more than two people
3. Once a policy is reached it becomes binding for the group of people
Politics may be defined as the making and reaching of collective decisions
● Politics can create cooperation and peace but it may also create competition
for power
● Politics may be described as the process of decision making that benefits
the greater collective good
○ However, it may also be the case that those in power place their
, self-interest above the collective good.
■ Politics is a game of winners and losers
● “Who gets what, when and how”
Politics has many different facets, it includes, cooperation, conflict,
competition, force and reason.
“Pure conflict is war. Pure cooperation is true love. Politics is a mixture of both.”
Power Power: The capacity to bring about intended effects. The term is often used as a
synonym for influence, but is also used more narrowly to refer to more forceful
modes of influence: notably, getting one’s way by threats.
Lukes Three Dimensions of Power
● Luke’s Theory of Power argues that power is exercised in three distinct
ways:
○ 1. Decision-making power
■ The Issue Method: the one person who wins the argument
has the power
○ 2. Non-decision making power
■ The Agenda Setting Method: the one person who is able to
set an agenda and decide what happens has the power
○ 3. Ideological power
■ The Manipulation Method: those who can
change/manipulate the views of others are in power
The state, authority, and legitimacy ● The world is divided into nearly 200 states
● States are sovereign entities and are responsible for what goes on within
their borders.
○ This calls into question a state’s authority and legitimacy
■ Power is the capacity to act, whereas authority is the right to
do so.
Authority: The right to rule. Authority creates its own power, so long as people
accept that the person in authority has the right to make decisions.
The four criterion for a state:
1. A permanent population
2. The ability to enter relations with other states
3. Defined borders/ territory
4. An effective government
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