KENDALL: CHAPTER 14: Power, Politics and Authority

POLITICS: Social INSTITUTION through which power is acquired and exercised
by some people and groups.

GOVERNMENT: Formal organization that has legal/political authority to
regulate relationships between members of a society, and those outside

STATE: The political entity that possesses a legitimate monopoly over the
use of force within its territory to achieve its goals.

Power: The ability of persons or grouips to achieve their goals
depite opposition from others.

REVIEW: What are IDEAL TYPES of authority?

1) Traditional (power that is legitimized on the basis of long-standing
custom    

2) Charismatic: Based on leader's exceptional personality traits  

3) Rational-legal: Power legitimized by written rules

SOME TYPES

1) Monarchy: A political system in which power resides in one person or
family and is passed on from generation to generation through lines of
inheritance. 
   a) Absolute Monarchy (saudi arabia)
   b) Limited Monarchy (Great Britain, Canada) -power in legislature
   c) Constitutional Monarchy  (Great Britain, Japan, Netherlands)
NOTE: OVERLAP BETWEEEN b) and c) - some use the terms interchangeable

2) Authoritarianism: Controlled by rulers who deny popular participation
in government (Cuba, Haiti are dictatorships; Iraq under Hussein also??
Book says no - what do YOU think?)

3) Totalitarianism: State seeks to regulate all aspects of people's
public and private lives. Nazi Germany, China, former Soviet Union

4) Democracy

Three other ways of identifying political systems:
Capitalism:  ECON SYSTEM in which  means of production are in
private hand and  main incentive for economic  activity is the
accumulation of profits.

Communism:  An econ AND SOCIAL system in which property is communaly 
owned by all and no social distinctions made on basis of
people's ability to produce SOCIALISM--ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL system 
in  which means of production and distribution are collective.
Most industrial societies  today are somewhat mixed with features of each,
but capitalism predominant.  In capitalism:
 
1) individualism required (selling labor,  controlling profits)
2) State in transformation -- role of state is to as sure
   smooth accumulation of capital

NOTE:

In the US, we've shifted since founding of the republic

--Pre-civil war: Agrarian vs. industrial Civil war: A battle between 
economic systems and policies Post-civil war--industrialized 
transformation, transportation

"Progressive  era": 1895-1925:  Consolidation of goverment power,  growth 
of business, gov't acting on behalf of business 

"NEW DEAL:"  (1930s) Depression-era--readjustment of  relationship of
gov't to the people,   "FEDERALISM" (gov't regulation--stress 
*not* liberalism, but "good business"

POST WW II -- prosperity for most, etc "NEW FEDERALISM" (1960s):  
Social struggles, equality,  social problems emerging---

1960s -- Civil rights 

From 1970s: Globalization, multi-nationals

Now -- New era, but what??....

Different ways of classifying political power:

1) Elite model: A "Ruling class" or "power elite rules 
2) Pluralism -- many groups involved in power sharing (labor, women, etc)

Know theoretical persepctives:
   Functionalist/pluralist models (power dispersed through competing grops)
   Conflict Perspective - power concentrated in hands of a few
      a) ruling class (Domhoff)
      b) Class conflict (Marx)
      c) Power Elite (C Wright Mills, Chomsky)

NOTE IDEAL TYPES v. REALITY (ie, what's supposed to happen in a democracy
versus what really does) 

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