Topic 1: The Nature of Power, Politics, and Government

Transcription

1 Name: Date: Period: Topic 1: The Nature of Power, Politics, and Government Filled In Notes Topic 1: The Nature of Power, Politics, and Government 1

2 Objectives about Chp 1: The Nature of Power, Politics, and Government In the course of this lesson and participating in the classroom discussions, students will a analyze the relationship between power and authority b describe the purpose and role of government c explain how political behavior is a natural function of society d evaluate differing assumptions held by people across time and place regarding power and authority I Preview 1 Make a list of all the individuals, institutions, and circumstances that have power over you For each item, write a brief description of how it has power over you a b c d 2 Now make a list of all of the individuals, institutions, and circumstances in which you have power For each one, briefly describe how you have power a b c d 3 Summarize in two to three sentences how you feel about power in your life Notes Topic 1: The Nature of Power, Politics, and Government 2

3 II The Power to Rule 1 What is Power, and How Is It Exercised? Difficult concept to define Sociologist Max Weber defined it as the possibility of imposing one s will upon the behavior of other persons Economist Kenneth Boulding refers to power as our capacity to get other people to do things that contribute to what we want 2 What are the Five Sources of Power? Explain how a teacher might use each type of power Notes Topic 1: The Nature of Power, Politics, and Government 3

4 3 How Does Power Relate to Authority? People with the right to use power are said to have authority Formal authority power that has been defined in some legal or other official way (have the legal right to use power) 4 What Gives a Ruler Legitimacy? Leaders whose power and authority are accepted as validby the people they govern are said to have legitimacy a Divine Right held that monarchs represented God on Earth b Social Contract Theory legitimacy of government stems from an unwritten contract between the ruler and the ruled Popularized by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke III The Foundations of Government The term government comes from a Greek word that means to steer or to control 1 What are The Three Purposes of Government? a Maintaining Public Order - Thomas Hobbes and John Locke lived in violent times If the Govt didn t maintain public order and protect life and property, people would be condemned to live in continual fear and danger of violent death b Protecting Life and Property c Providing Public Goods public goods belong to all citizens; available to everyone (even those who don t pay taxes) Schools, roads, fire and police protection More than one person can consume them at a time without reducing the amount available to others Once a public good is made available, all people have the right to use it 2 The Building Blocks of Government: a Coercion ways in which govt can use its power to force citizens to behave in certain ways EXpolice, courts and prisons use the threat of arrest an punishment to maintain public order and keep people secure Involuntary services like a draft, jury duty b Revenue Collection need $ to provide security and pay for public goods 3 The Governments of Modern Nation-States Fairly new phenomenon a Nation a group of people who share a common ethnic origin, culture, and language b State a geographical area controlled by a single government c What are the four characteristics of a nation-state? Territorial Integrity need internationally recognized boundaries Stable Population Code of Laws common legal system National Sovereignty independent and self-governing 4 What are the four theories of the Origin of the State? a Force Theory when a person or group of people claim control of an area and force the people in that area to their rule b Evolutionary Theory developed naturally out of the family c Divine Right Theory the right to rule came directly from God's consent d Social Contract Theory people give up rights to the government for certain services; a voluntary act of free people Notes Topic 1: The Nature of Power, Politics, and Government 4

5 IV Politics and Political Activity 1 politics the process and method of making decisions for groups, generally applied to governments though also seen in other human interactions a Political activity has a purpose and is done for a reason Can range from looking at a political cartoon to running for public office Some political actions take little effort Others require a significant amount of time, money, effort, and even courage No matter how simple or difficult, political activity is purposeful It is done for a reason b political activity is collective it involves working with others to achieve shared goals 2 government the institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies V What are the Five Political Games People Play? 1 Horse Trading: Winning by Giving to Get - The objective of the horse-trading game is to achieve a win-win situation, in which both players walk away satisfied The basic strategy involves giving up something one s opponent wants in exchange for something of equal or greater value The famous Missouri Compromise was the result of horse trading in Congress After much debate, the Northern states, which had abolished slavery, agreed to allow Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state In exchange, the Southern states accepted a ban on slavery in much of Louisiana Territory and admission of Maine as a free state This win-win compromise helped postpone the Civil War for several decades 2 Walkout: Winning by refusing to play the walkout game is commonly played by labor unions to back up demands for better pay and working conditions If employers refuse those demands, union workers may choose to strike, or walk off their jobs 3 Power Struggle: Winning by Being Smarter and Stronger than the Opposition - clever politicians try to win by outfoxing or overpowering their opponents Machiavelli wrote, the end justifies the means He wrote that a prince must not hesitate to destroy those who can and will injure him and instill fear in others, even if this costs him the love of the people If we must choose between them, he advised, it is far safer to be feared than loved 4 Demolition Derby: Winning by Wiping Out the Opposition - players try to eliminate all real and perceived enemies The key players in demolition derby are those who command the means of force They include military leaders, dictators, and monarchs Players use a variety of strategies, ranging from fear and intimidation to murder and massacres, to wipe out the opposition The demolition derby game often ends in a bloodbath 5 Civil Disobedience: Winning by Shaming the Opposition the players in this game are usually ordinary citizens protesting an injustice In this game, the protest typically involves an in-your-face but peaceful confrontation with authorities By remaining nonviolent, the protesters hope to contrast their high moral vision with the unjust laws and actions of the government Notes Topic 1: The Nature of Power, Politics, and Government 5

6 Read the quotations below Assign each quotation a truth ranking from 1 to 5 (1 = never true, 5 = always true) Then write a brief response to each of the questions that follow the quotations Support your answers with evidence from your own experience and your knowledge of historic and current events Truth Ranking Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power We have guided missiles and misguided men Martin Luther King Jr, Strength to Love, 1963 Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely Lord Acton, Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 1887 It is not power that corrupts but fear Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from fear speech, 1990 Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun Mao Zedong Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, 1981 When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall Mohandas Gandhi When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace Jimi Hendrix This country has been strip-mined by rich and powerful interests If you don t like what they re doing, don t just sit there Ralph Nader, 1992 The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable John F Kennedy, speech at Amherst College, Which of the quotations do you think is the most true about power? Why? 2 Which of the quotations do you think is the most true about politics? Why? 3 Which of the quotations do you think is the most true about your own life? Why? Notes Topic 1: The Nature of Power, Politics, and Government 6

7 Power, Politics, and You - What is highquality power and how can you get it? Directions: Read the article below, then answer the questions at the bottom of the page No one likes to feel powerless But few of us think all that much about what power is and how to get it This is not true, however, of the American writer and futurist Alvin Toffler Toffler has spent much of his career studying how people have gained and used power throughout human history In his book, PowerShift, Toffler argues that there are three kinds of power but only one is high-quality power for the 21st century As you read the excerpt, think about your own experiences with different kinds of power Also ask yourself, If Toffler is right, how can I gain more high-quality power for myself? From Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the edge of the 21 st Century by Alvin Toffler High-Quality Power Most conventional assumptions about power, in Western culture at least, imply that power is a matter of quantity But, while some of us clearly have less power than others, this approach ignores what may now be the most important factor of all: the quality of power No one doubts that violence embodied in a mugger s switchblade or a nuclear missile can yield awesome results The shadow of violence or force, embedded in the law, stands behind every act of government, and in the end every government relies on soldiers and police to enforce its will But violence in general suffers from important drawbacks To begin with, it encourages us to carry a can of Mace, or to crank up an arms race that increases risks to everyone Even when it works, violence produces resistance Its victims or their survivors look for the first chance to strike back The main weakness of brute force or violence, however, is its sheer inflexibility It can only be used to punish It is, in short, low-quality power Wealth, by contrast, is a far better tool of power A fat wallet is much more versatile Instead of just threatening or delivering punishment, it can also offer finely graded rewards payments and payoffs, in cash or kind Wealth can be used in either a positive or a negative way It is, therefore, much more flexible than force Wealth yields medium-quality power The highest-quality power, however, comes from the application of knowledge High-quality power is not simply clout High quality implies much more It implies efficiency using up the fewest power resources to achieve a goal Knowledge can often be used to make the other party like your agenda for action It can even persuade the person that she or he originated it Of the three root sources of social control, therefore, it is knowledge, the most versatile, that produces what Pentagon brass like to call the biggest bang for the buck It can be used to punish, reward, persuade, and even transform It can transform enemy into ally Best of all, with the right knowledge one can circumvent nasty situations in the first place, so as to avoid wasting force or wealth altogether The Democratic Difference Besides its great flexibility, knowledge has other important characteristics that make it fundamentally different from lesser sources of power in tomorrow s world Thus force, for all practical concerns, is finite There is a limit to how much force can be employed before we destroy what we wish to capture or defend The same is true for wealth Money cannot buy everything, and at some point even the fattest wallet empties out By contrast, knowledge does not We can always generate more Knowledge, in principle at least, is infinitely expandable Knowledge is also inherently different from both muscle and money, because, as a rule, if I use a gun, you cannot simultaneously use the same gun If you use a dollar, I can t use the same dollar at the same time By contrast, both of us can use the same knowledge either for or against each other and in that very process we may even produce still more knowledge Unlike bullets or budgets, knowledge itself doesn t get used up This alone tells us that the rules of the knowledge-power game are sharply different from the precepts relied on by those who use force or money to accomplish their will But a last, even more crucial difference sets violence and wealth apart from knowledge as we race into what has been called an information age: By definition, both force and wealth are the property of the strong and the rich It is the truly revolutionary characteristic of knowledge that it can be grasped by the weak and the poor as well Knowledge is the most democratic source of power Which makes it a continuing threat to the powerful, even as they use it to enhance their own power It also explains why every powerholder from the patriarch of a family to the president of a company or the Prime Minister of a nation wants to control the quantity, quality, and distribution of knowledge within his or her domain The control of knowledge is the crux of tomorrow s worldwide struggle for power in every human institution 1 According to Alvin Toffler, what are the three kinds of power? Give an example of each 2 Which of these three is the highest-quality power? 3 Why should you care about knowledge as a kind of power? Notes Topic 1: The Nature of Power, Politics, and Government 7

8 Glossary Topic 1 Directions: Fill in the definition for the term listed Then, in the box on the right, you have to draw a picture OR write the definition in your own words OR write a sentence using the word that demonstrates its meeting Authority Government Power Legitimacy Divine Right of Kings Social Contract Theory Notes Topic 1: The Nature of Power, Politics, and Government 8

9 Glossary Topic 1 Directions: Fill in the definition for the term listed Then, in the box on the right, you have to draw a picture OR write the definition in your own words OR write a sentence using the word that demonstrates its meeting Polity Nation-State Sovereignty Politics Institution Notes Topic 1: The Nature of Power, Politics, and Government 9

10 Summary DIRECTIONS: Choose only one of the following: a) write a summary (25-75 words) of what you believe was the most important aspect of the notes/lecture b) write what you believe to be the most interesting or memorable part of the notes/lecture (25-75 words) c) draw something that symbolizes the notes/lecture to you (has to be different than your title page) Notes Topic 1: The Nature of Power, Politics, and Government 10