POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE:

KEY CONCEPTS
POLITICAL SCIENCE – POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS – FORMS OF GOVERNMENT –
FORMING A GOVERNMENT – BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT
 POLITICAL SCIENCE
The study of politics. The science
which concerns the
institutionalization of human
politics. It deals with systems of
government and the analysis of
political activity, political behavior,
and political theories and practices.

Came from Greek word polis

meaning “City-States”
“ POLITICS ARE A MATTER TOO SERIOUS TO BE LEFT TO
POLITICIANS

Charles de Gaulle
”
Politics, in its broadest sense, is the activity through which people make,
preserve and amend the general rules under which they live. Although politics
is also an academic subject, it is then clearly the study of this activity. Politics is
thus inextricably linked to the phenomena of conflict and cooperation.
POLITICS DEFINED ?
• The mass of associations that the word has when used in
everyday language; in other words, politics is a ‘loaded’
term.
• Politics is defined in such different ways: as the exercise of
power, the science of government, the making of collective
decisions, the allocation of scarce resources, the practice of
deception and manipulation, and so on.
POLITICS DEFINED ?
CONFLICT: Competition between opposing forces, reflecting a
diversity of opinions, preferences, needs or interests

COOPERATION: Working together; achieving goals through

collective action.
POLITICS AS ART OF GOVERNANCE

• Politics is what takes place within a polity, a system of

social organization centered on the machinery of
government.
• This means that most people, most institutions and
most social activities can be regarded as being
‘outside’ politics.
POLITICS AS ART OF GOVERNANCE

• POLITY: A society organized through the exercise of

political authority; for Aristotle, rule by the many in the
interests of all.
• ANTI-POLITICS: Disillusionment with formal or
established political processes, reflected in non-
participation, support for anti-system parties, or the
use of direct action.
POLITICS AS PUBLIC AFFAIRS

• Politics moves it beyond the narrow realm of

government to what is thought of as ‘public
life’ or ‘public affairs’.
“
MAN IN BY NATURE IS A POLITICAL ANIMAL

Aristotle
”
Aristotle meant that it is only within a political community that
human beings can live the ‘good life’. From this viewpoint, then,
politics is an ethical activity concerned with creating a ‘just
society’; it is what Aristotle called the ‘master science’.
POLITICS AS COMPROMISE AND CONSENSUS

• Politics is seen as a particular means of resolving

conflict: that is, by compromise, conciliation and
negotiation, rather than through force and naked
power.

• CONSENSUS: means agreement, but it refers to an

agreement of a particular kind
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.
• POWER: the ability to achieve a desired
outcome, sometimes seen as the ‘power to’ do
something.
GOVERNANCE

• GOVERNANCE: refers to all actions and

activities related to governing. It is defined by the
interaction and decision-making among
policymakers, public officials, and citizens
involved in addressing collective problems.
BRANCHES OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

• Comparative Politics
• International Relations
• Public Administration
• Political Philosophy
• Political Economy
• Public Law
HISTORY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Development of Political Science

ANCIENT MEDIEVAL AGE OF INDUSTRIAL

RENAISSANCE
PERIOD PERIOD ENLIGHTENMENT REVOLUTION

Plato and Jean Bodin, St.

Aristotle Augustine and St. Karl Marx,
Thomas Hobbes, John
(Greece);Cicero Thomas (Europe); Friedrich Engels,
Niccolò Locke, Jean Jacques
(Rome); Ibn Khaldun, Woodrow Wilson,
Machiavelli, St. Rousseau, Edmund
Confucius Muhammad, Henry David
Thomas More, Burke, Montesquieu,
(China); Omar Khayam Thoreau, Max
Erasmus Mundus Voltaire, Thomas
Chanakya (India) and Al-Farabi Weber
Jefferson, Alexander
(Middle East)
Hamilton, Benjamin
Franklin
HISTORY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Development of Political Science

POST-WORLD
MODERN ERA COLD WAR POST COLD WAR CONTEMPORARY
WAR

Vladirmir Lenin,
Mao Zedong,
Eduard Bernstein,
Adolf Hitler,
Rosa Luxemburg, John Rawls,
Antonio Gramsci, Milton Friedman,
Winston Oscar Lange, Robert Dahl,
Giuseppe Friedrich Hayek
Churchill, Michael Henry Kissinger David Easton
Mazzini, Alfredo
Oakeshott
Rocco, Carl
Schmitt
 APPROACHES IN POLITICAL
SCIENCE
• NORMATIVE: The prescription of values and
standards of conduct; what ‘should be’ rather
than what ‘is’.
• EMPIRICAL: Based on observation and
experiment; empirical knowledge is derived from
sense data and experience.
 APPROACHES IN POLITICAL
SCIENCE
• POSITIVISM: The theory that social, and
indeed all forms of, enquiry should adhere
strictly to the methods of the natural
sciences.
• TRADITIONALIST/LEGAL
INSTITUTIONALISM – understanding
politics by examining laws, governmental
offices, constitutions, and other official
institutions
 APPROACHES IN POLITICAL
SCIENCE
• BEHAVIORALISM: The belief that social
theories should be constructed only on the basis
of observable behavior, providing quantifiable
data for research. It understand politics not just
in state institutions but also individuals
behaviors in a State.
• POST-BEHAVIORALISM – understanding
politics in further scoping down to citizens not
just in individuals acting as State actors.
 APPROACHES IN POLITICAL
SCIENCE
• CONSTRUCTIVISM: (or social constructivism) is
an approach to analysis that is based on the
belief that there is no objective social or political
reality independent of our understanding of it.
• POST-POSITIVISM: An approach to knowledge
that questions the idea of an ‘objective’ reality,
emphasizing instead the extent to which people
conceive, or ‘construct’, the world in which they
live.
 APPROACHES IN POLITICAL
SCIENCE
• POSTMODERNISM: highlights the shift away
from societies structured by industrialization and
class solidarity to increasingly fragmented and
pluralistic ‘information’ societies.
POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS

• Organized way in which power is distributed and

decisions are made within a society (Santarita and
Madrid, 2016)
• Entity that is participating in a political process
(Alejandria-Gonzales, 2016)
• Created to maintain social order
POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS
ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS

• POWER: Likelihood of achieving desired ends in spite of resistance

from others (Santarita and Madrid, 2016) Can be: Physical,
Psychological
• AUTHORITY: Power to make binding decisions and issues commands.
Necessary condition for a leader
• LEGITIMACY: Moral and ethical concept that bestows one who
possesses power the right to exercise such since it is perceived to be
justified and proper
FORMS OF GOVERNMENT: NUMBER OF PEOPLE

MONARCHY ARISTOCRACY
• political power is in the hands of a • political power is exercised by a few
single person without regard to privileged class
the source of his election or the
nature or duration of his tenure.
• ABSOLUTE MONARCHY
• LIMITED MONARCHY
FORMS OF GOVERNMENT: FORM OF RULE
TOTALITARIAN
• State’s power is unlimited and
is used to control virtually all
aspects of public and private
life.
AUTHORITRIAN
• Characterized by a strong
central government that allows
the people a limited degree of
political freedom.
FORMS OF GOVERNMENT: GENERAL AND NUMBER OF PEOPLE
DEMOCRACY
• Power is exercised through the
people
• Political power is exercised by a
majority of the people.
CLASSIFICATIONS OF
DEMOCRACY
• DIRECT OR PURE – will of the state
is formulated and expressed directly
• INDIRECT OR REPRESENTATIVE
(REPUBLIC)– will of the state is run
small and select body of persons
chosen by the people as their
representatives
FORMS OF GOVERNMENT: RELATIONS OF EXECUTIVE AND
LEGISLATIVE
PARLIAMENTARY
• fusion of powers between the
executive and legislative
where the former is
responsible to the legislature
and the head of state acts in a
ceremonial function
PRESIDENTIAL
• separation of powers between
the executive and the
legislative branches of the
government, with the executive
acting as the head of state and
of the government,
independent of the legislature
FORMS OF GOVERNMENT: RELATIONS OF EXECUTIVE AND
LEGISLATIVE

SEMI-PRESIDENTIAL
• system of government in which a president exists
alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, with the latter
being responsible to the legislature of a state.
FORMS OF GOVERNMENT: RELATIONS OF NATIONAL AND
LOCAL

UNITARY
• control of national and local
affairs is exercised by the
central or national
government
FEDERAL
• powers of the government
are divided between two sets
of organs, one for national
and the other for local, each
organ being supreme within
its own sphere
FORMING A GOVERNMENT:
CONSTITUTION
CONSTITUTION: a set of
primary principles and laws
that defines what
government the people
intends to establish.
TYPES OF CONSTITUTION

• WRITTEN CONSTITUTION: constitution written in the

form of a book or a series of documents combined in
the form of a book.
• UNWRITTEN CONSITUTION: neither drafted nor
enacted by a Constituent Assembly and nor even
written in the form of a book. It is found in several
historical charters, laws and conventions.
TYPES OF CONSTITUTION

• FLEXIBLE CONSTITUTION: one which can be

easily amended.
• RIGID CONSTITUTION: one which cannot be
easily amended. Its method of amendment is
difficult.
TYPES OF CONSTITUTION

• EVOLVED CONSTITUTION: one which is not made at

any time by any assembly of persons or an institution.
It is the result of slow and gradual process of evolution.
• ENACTED CONSTITUTION: man-made constitution.
It is made, enacted and adopted by an assembly or
council called a Constituent Assembly or Constitutional
Council.
FORMING A GOVERNMENT:
PARLIAMENTARY
In countries with Parliamentary
systems, the people elect the
members of the parliament then
appoint the Prime Minister majority
party. The Prime Minister then
selects cabinet officials from
parliament. As such, the cabinet
ministers constitute the “new
government”.
FORMING A GOVERNMENT:
MILITARY COUP
COUP D’ÉTAT: also called
Coup, the sudden, violent
overthrow of an existing
government by a small group.
The chief prerequisite for a
coup is control of all or part of
the armed forces, the police,
and other military elements.
FORMING A GOVERNMENT:
REVOLUTION
REVOLUTION: in social
and political science, a
major, sudden, and hence
typically violent alteration
in government and in
related associations and
structures.
FORMING A GOVERNMENT:
FOREIGN OCCUPATION
MILITARY OR BELLIGERENT
OCCUPATION: is effective
provisional control by a certain
ruling power over a territory,
which is not under the formal
sovereignty of that entity,
without the violation of the
actual sovereign.
THREE BRANCHES OF THE GOVERNMENT
 EXECUTIVE BRANCH

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: the

institution that governs the state
by implementing laws and
creating policies and programs to
respond to the needs of the state.
 LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH: the

lawmaking institution of the
government, also known as the
legislature.
 JUDICIAL BRANCH

JUDICIAL BRANCH: composed

of the courts that interpret and
apply the laws of the State.
APPLYING TO REAL WORLD

• REALPOLITIK: the friction between the ideal and the real

world. An understanding that politics as primarily driven by
the current needs, circumstances, or prevailing reality in the
state, instead of political ideals and moral and ethical
standards.
• POLITICAL REALISM: believes that politics is defined by
conflicting interests among individuals and groups as they
compete for power in government and society.
APPLYING TO REAL WORLD

• COMPLEX INTERDEPENDENCE: a perspective which

believes that societies governments, and states are all linked
together through economic and political activities.
• GLOBAL JUSTICE: believes that inequality is a reality.
However, it also stresses that it is the role of the government
to address inequality and other social issues, and promote
human dignity, justice, equality, and adherence to the law.
REFERENCES
• (n.a.) Constitution: Meaning, Types and Importance of Constitution. Retrieved from:
http://www.preservearticles.com/political-science/constitution-meaning-types-and-importance-of-
constitution/30488. Retrieved date: 6/25/2019
• Atienza, Maria Ela (2013) Introduction to Philippine Politics. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press
• Atkinson, S., & Thorpe, C. (2015). The Politics book. London: Dorling Kindersley.
• Heywood, A. (2013) Politics. 4th Edition. London: Palgrave Macmillan
• Joven, Arnel E., (2017) Philippine Politics and Governance for Senior High School. Quezon City: C and E
Publishing, Inc.