 POLITICS AS PUBLIC AFFAIRS

WEEK 2-4 - is the conduct and management of

different public affairs concerning in
WHAT IS POLITICS the society.
- Is an ethical activity concerned with
 ‘Man is by nature a political animal’-
creating a ‘just society’
ARISTOTLE
- It is what Aristotle called the
POLITICS
‘master of science’.
- Is the activity through which people
- Is the most important form of
make, preserve and amend the
human activity because it involves
general rules under which they live.
interaction amongst free and equal
- Is a ‘loaded term’ and is usually
citizens. It gives meaning to life and
thought of as a ‘dirty’ word.
affirms the uniqueness of each
- nothing more than a means of
individual. – Hannah Arendt, The
rising in the world’, Samuel
Human Condition, 1958
Johnson, 1775. 19th Century US
- Also been portrayed as a form of
Historian ‘systematic organization
unwanted interference, and is
of hatreds’
unwholesome quite simply because
- Is defined in such different ways: as
it prevents people acting as they
the exercise of Power, the exercise
choose.
of authority, the making of
 POLITICS AS COMPROMISE AND
collective decisions, the allocation
CONSENSUS
of scarce resources, the practice of
- Is seen as a particular way of
deception and manipulation, and
resolution by compromise,
etch.
conciliation and negotiations.
 POLITICS AS THE ART OF
- ‘Politics is the activity by which
GOVERNMENT
differing interest within a given unit
- ‘Politics is not a science … but an art’,
of rule are conciliated by giving
Chancellor Bismarck. The art of
them a share in power in
government is the exercise of control
proportion to their importance to
within society through the making and
the welfare and the survival of the
enforcement of collective decisions.
whole community’ – Bernard Crick,
- Politics is derived from a Greek word
In Defense of Politics, 1962.
‘polis’, meaning literary City state.
- The key to politics is a wide
- Amounts to ‘what concerns the state’
dispersal of power.
- Focus on the personnel and machinery
- is certainly no utopian solution, but
of the government- to study politics is
it is undoubtedly preferable to
in essence to study the government, or
alternative: bloodshed and
more broadly, to study the exercise of
brutallity.
authority.
 ‘Politics is designed to disappoint’; its
outcomes are often ‘messy, ambigouos
and never final’. -Stoker (2006:10)
 POLITICS AS POWER  CONCEPTS, MODELS AND THEORIES
- ‘Politics is at the heart of all  II. Models
collective social activity, formal and - a representation of something
informal, public and private, in all on a smaller scale.
human groups, institutions and - * One of the most influential
societies ‘, Adrian Leftwich, What is models in political analysis is
Politics? The Activity and Its Study, The Political System of David
2004. Easton (1979, 1981)
- It takes place at every level of social  III. Theories
interaction. - is a proposition, offers a
- Faces of Power: systematic explanation of a
 Power as decision making body of Empirical data.
 Power as agenda setting - like models, it also contains
 Power as thought control bias.
- Concerns the production,
distribution and use of resources in
the course of social existence.
- The ability to achieve the desired
outcome through whatever means.
- Is about diversity and conflict and
its essential ingredient is the
existence of scarcity.
- Feminist-“Politics of Everyday Life”
- Marxist- Struggle is the very Heart
of Politics.
 STUDYING POLITICS
- Recent Developments
 Formal Political Theory
 Rational-Choice Theory
 Richer and more Diverse
 Wide range of more recent
ideas and themes.
 CAN THE STUDY OF POLITICS BE
SCIENTIFIC?
- Gain Objective Knowledge
- Distinguishing Facts and
Values.
- Difficult in gaining access to
reliable data;
 Implicit Values IDEOLOGY
 Presence of Bias.
 Ideologies were made necessary by the
Age of Enlightenment belief
 Ideology …
 given a political meaning (unless
otherwise specified)
 provide an interpretation of the
present and a view of a desired future.
 includes a list of specific steps that can
be taken to accomplish its goals.
 oriented towards masses
 simply stated and presented in
motivational terms
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF IDEOLOGY
- Politics not democratized
- “A war is something which
should not concern many
people” – Frederick the Great
- Every modern political system is
motivational
- Ideologies – among the major
tools used by modern
governments to mobilize the
masses
- Ideologies – call for mass
mobilization and collective
efforts to accomplish desired
ends
 THE SOURCE OF IDEOLOGY
- Knowledge was to be revealed
by a superior wisdom
- People began to challenge
- Persistence led to discoveries
that revolutionized human
existence
- Development of science and
technology
 Sense of liberation from
ignorance
 Rational world approached in
systematic fashion
 Human reason to wide range of
problems
- Innovators developed machines that
greatly increased productivity and
drastically changed people’s
relationship to the things produced
- Changes in productivity had enormous
social effects
 Rural to urban
 Neighborhoods are crowded
and unsanitary
 Life became less social
 Divorced from land
- Urinsecurity among people
- Scholarsbanization and Industrialization
caused massive confusion and,
philosophers and politicians –
comprehend, explain and rationalize
events
- Rationalizations – political ideologies
- Economic dislocation
- Society became increasingly mobile
- Worsening social problems
- Technical advances = demand for
resources = increase population
thus, = demand for resources
- Development of rationalism and science
vs. Church
- World became increasingly materialistic
and decreasingly spiritualistic
- Fundamental change has tended to
disorient and confuse people
- Industrialization caused social upheaval
and political change
- Two factors responsible for the world
in which we now live:
 Belief that people can take active steps
that will improve their lives
 Mechanization of production
 THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM
 - IDEOLOGY – first used by the French
in the early 19th Century
- Antoine Louis Claude Destutt de
Tracy
 Used ideology in his
systematic study of the
Enlightenment
 believed people could use
science to improve social
and political conditions
 Ideology – “science of ideas”
 Ideas – stimulated by the
physical environment
- Aspects:
 Materialism
 Social and political
improvement was its main
goal
- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
 Ideology – nothing more than a
fabrication used by a particular
group of people to justify
themselves
 concepts completely subjective
and were used to justify the
ruling class
- Karl Mannheim
 Historical perspective
 No ideology can be
understood unless we grasp
the ideas of the previous era
and investigate the impact
of the previous ideology on
the current one
 CONTEMPORARY DEFINITIONS
- Frederick Watkins
- Ideology
 comes almost entirely from
political extremes (in Age of
Ideology)
 Always opposed to the
status quo
 Usually militant,
revolutionary, and violent
- Most ideologies are stated
 In simplistic terms
 Are utopian in their
objectives
 Usually display great faith in
humankind’s potential for
finding success and
happiness
- Conservatism – “anti-ideology”
- David Ingersoll
- Ideology
 includes assessment of the
status quo and a view of the
future
 contains a definite plan of
action by which this better
future can be attained
 Stimulate people to achieve
utopian objectives
- L.T. Sargent
- Ideologies
 based on the value systems of
various societies
 Simplistic in problem solving
 “provides the believer with a
picture of the world both as it is
and as it should be, and in so
doing … organizes the
tremendous complexity of the
world into something fairly
simple and understandable.”
- Terrence Ball
- Ideologies
 “an agenda of things to discuss,
questions to ask, hypotheses to make.”
 Exists whenever politics is motivated
by intellectual rather than random
impulses
IDEOLOGY …
- Political term
 - Consists of a view of the present and
a vision of the future
- Action-oriented
- Directed toward the masses
- Couched in fairly simple terms
WRAP-UP
IDEOLOGIES …
- Accompany humankind’s increased
effort to explain political and social
phenomenon rationally
- Result of efforts to make political
accommodations to the conditions
created by the Industrial Revolution
- Term originally used in an objective way
to explain the origin of ideas
- Came to be understood as subjective
political rationalizations later on
- Understood to be political statements
that call upon the masses to act in some
way in order to improve political life
“The philosophers have
only interpreted the world, in various
ways. The point, however, is
to change it.”― Karl Marx, Eleven
Theses on Feuerbach  -
MODERN POLITICAL
IDEOLOGY
- IDEOLOGY DEFINITION
- set of ideas and beliefs of a group or a political party
that provides a basis for organized political action.
- The attempt to find a political accommodation to the
social and economic conditions created by Industrial
Revolution
CENTRAL FEATURES OF AN
IDEOLOGY
- Offers an account of the existing order
- A model of desired futures
- An outline of how political change can and
should be brought about
CHARACTERISTICS OF AN
IDEOLOGY
- Comprehensiveness
- Pervasiveness
- Extensiveness
- Intensiveness
INTELLECTUAL COMPONENTS OF
AN IDEOLOGY
- Values
- Vision of the Ideal Polity
- Conception of Human Nature
- Strategy of Action
Political Tactics
“In ideological politics…there are
significant disagreement not only what is
the promised land, but also about how to
get there.”
TYPES OF IDEOLOGIES
- Ideologies of Limits on Government
- Ideologies of Economic Control
- Political Ideologies, American Style
CONSTITUTIONALISM
- Government power should be limited so as
to protect human rights
- Defined by how the contents of its
decisions affect human rights
DEMOCRACY
- Political decisions are made according to
the principles of popular sovereignty,
political equality, popular consultation and
majority rule
- Defined by the process by which all the
decisions are made
LIBERALISM
- Advocates maximum freedom for
individuals from regulation by government
(18th-19th century/classical def.)
- Favors not only personal freedom but also
strict government regulation of business
and government guarantees of minimum
standards of living, health and employment
for all (20th century def.)
Classical liberalism’s basis on their
stand:
- Rights as ends
- Rights as means
TOTALITARIANISM
- The government controls all aspects of the
citizen’s lives so they will become the kind
of people the nation needs
Essential Characteristics of Modern
Totalitarian Regimes
- Each member of the society must adhere by
outer and inner conviction
- A single mass party (led by one person)
and consisting of a relatively small
proportion of the total population rules
- A system of terroristic police control exists
and makes full use of modern tech for
spying and surveillance
- All media of mass communication is taken
full control by the party
- Monopoly of all means of effective combat
- Private business orgs are the central control
of the entire economy through bureaucratic
coordination
CAPITALISM
- Economic system
That involves a way of
Making and distributing
Goods and services
Based on the private
Ownership of most
enterprises.
LAISSEZ FAIRE
- Political ideology based on capitalism
- Holds that there should be minimum
government intervention in economic
affairs
- Government must neither hold back the
successful, nor help the unsuccessful
- All the decisions are made by the market
forces “that government is best which
governs least.”
SOCIALISM
- The government own many of the larger
industries and provide education, health
and welfare services while allowing
citizens some economic choices
- The means of production, distribution and
exchange are publicly owned and operated
- They propose that the government take the
‘commanding heights’ of the economy and
distribute economic goods to individuals in
 accordance with their human needs and not
with their economic productivity

COMMUNISM

- The government owns all businesses and

farms and provides its people's healthcare,
education and welfare. (operated by a
single authoritarian party)
- A utopia of socialism
- The Marxists hold that true socialism can
be established only by violent revolution
and liquidation of unrepentant capitalists

MODERN POLITICAL LIBERALISM

- Franklin Roosevelt: protections should be

guaranteed by converting the old do-
nothing state into a welfare state
- Inherited the belief of egalitarianism
- Favors considerable government
intervention in people’s economic affairs
and minimum government intervention in
their moral, religious and intellectual
affairs The Spectrum of
MODERN AMERICAN
CONSERVATISM Political Attitudes
- Laissez Faire
- Combination of classical economics and
elitism
- Preserving traditional moral and religious
values CHANGE
- Favors minimum government intervention - Essential and fundamental for every
in people’s economic affairs, but favors society.
considerable government intervention in
their moral, religious and intellectual 4 Things about change that we should
affairs know:
1. Direction
REFERENCE
o Ranney, Austin (2001) Governing: An Introduction to * Progressive or Retrogressive change
Political Science, 8th ed. Prentice Hall
o Baradat, Leon P. (1997) Political Ideologies: their origins
and impact, 6th ed., Prentice Hall
 Section D

- Where political pacifists are located.

2. Depth LIBERALS
* Major Adjustments? Or Minor
Adjustments? - Less dissatisfied with the existing society.
3. Speed - Try to change the law/order through legal
* the more dissatisfied the people procedures.
are of the order the more - They believe in people’s ability to solve a
impatient they are for change. problem through reasoning.
4. Method
*illegally or legally? officially or Classical Liberals
unofficially? peacefully or
- Fathered by John Locke
violently?
- Insist that the government should stay out
of people’s affairs.
RADICALS
- Favor revolutionary change CONTEMPORARY LIBERALS
- 4 Sections/ Types of Radicals
- Fathered by Jeremy Bentham
- Prefer to use government as a tool to help
improve the conditions of human life.

MODERATES

- Satisfied with society but agree that there is

room for improvement.
SECTION A - Believe that change should be made
gradually.
- Extremely dissatisfied with the existing
order CONSERVATIVES

- They propose immediate change through - Most supportive of the status quo.
violent means - Oppose change
- Does not believe in human reasoning.
Section B

- Does not insist that violence is the only TORIES

way to bring meaningful change
- Believes that leaders should come from the
- They just believe it is the most likely way elite group.

Section C
ENTREPRENEURS
- Reluctant to use violence as a method of
bringing change. - Believes that leaders can come from any
status of society.
 1. I dont think na ang industrialization ang root
Comparison between cause sa problem and rather kay ang
• Liberals human nature. Like what they did to take
advantage of the progress hehe
- Believe in human reasoning
2. they dont want to change the world because
- Believe that all humans are equal
it already suits them! (paraphrased from the
• Conservatives movie enola holmes!!) bai i think ang simple
- Mistrust human nature lang nga explanation kay as Heywood
- Human equality is a myth stated "Politics is exciting because people
disagree.
Reactionary "On the one hand, the existence of rival
• Favor a policy that would return society to opinions, different wants, competing needs
a previous condition. and opposing interests guarantees
• Reject claims to human equality disagreement about the rules under which
• Favor distributing wealth unequally people live."
3.
•
4. Industrialization has produced great wealth
for those who are fortunate enough to profit
from it
5. one of the effects of industrialization sad is
the increase of population and demand for
resources, which must be met
6.
VALUES
People who are on the
• Left side of the Spectrum
- Have great emphasis on human rights.
- Karl Marx (No private property or any sign
of inequality)
- Internationalism
• Right side of the Spectrum
- Have great emphasis on property rights.
- Benito Mussolini (insist that people have
no rights and no justification)
- Nationalism

Factors that influences our political choices

• Motivation
* Rich and Poor
• Age
* Young and Old
• Psychologically Suited
• Nature of People