PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE REVIEWER

reviewer by: blessy <3

POLITICS - came from the word polis meaning “of or pertaining to state” in Greek. It is also the root
word for polites meaning people or citizens and politikos meaning “of, for, or relating to politicians”
which also translates to “affairs of the state.” It involves decision-making, law-making, & governance. It
is the study of practice and distribution of powers.

POLITICS - is the heart of Political Science.

PLATO - POLITICS is the study of the affairs of the Polis (city-state), which he defined as the most
sovereign and inclusive association.

Robert Dahl - POLITICS is the existence of rules or authority within the state.

LEGITIMACY - Attitude of the people about what they consider in mind that government is a rightful
ruler over them

SOVEREIGNTY - It is the right of the government to rule and the right of a government of leadership to
exist.

SOVEREIGNTY - The right of a leader to rule and control not only his subjects but also the territory over
which the citizens live and prosper.

AUTHORITY - It is the power of the leader to rule and the power to exact obedience on his people. It is
based on an acknowledged duty to obey rather than on any form of coercion or manipulation.

Fields of Political Science

Political Theory - political views, thoughts or doctrines (ideology)

Public Law - government powers, duties and organization, and limits of power

Public Administration - methods and techniques of state affairs

Important Personalities in Political Science

Jean Bodin - French Philosopher, who first called the study of state as political science
Niccolo Maciavelli - Father of Modern Political Science
Jean Jacques Rousseau - Father of Modern Democracy
GOVERNANCE AND GOVERNMENT

The word “governance” came from the Latin verb “gubernare,” or more originally from the Greek word
“kubernaein,” which means “to steer.”

GOVERNANCE - Governance is commonly defined as the exercise of power or authority by political

leaders for the well-being of their country’s citizens or subjects.

Three Legs of Governance

Economic governance - country's economic activities & its relationships w/ other economies

Political governance - to formulate policy

Administrative governance - system of policy implementation

Characteristics of Good Governance

POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES - One’s basic beliefs about power, political values, and the role of government.

ANARCHISM - Anarchy is a political ideology which treats any fixed system of government as
repressing. In this political ideology, the government is unnecessary and is the cause of harm because it
controls people.

ABSOLUTISM - Absolutism is an ideology that centralizes control to one individual, may it be by

heredity or by divine right. This may lead to societies treating their leaders as leader of both
governmental and religious affairs.

LIBERALISM - The ideology that focuses on equality and liberty. Liberalism advocates that every
individual should enjoy freedom. Government and States are created to ensure that people can enjoy
their rights. In such ideology, everybody is provided with basic rights- no person is born with more
rights than others.

CONSERVATISM - As a reaction to the liberalism, conservatism seeks to avoid the former's unstable
tendencies. It holds that certain traditions must be kept to maintain social stability. Human reason is
insufficient in trying to solve the problems of governance.

SOCIALISM - Unlike other ideologies, socialism emphasizes social consciousness. Socialism emphasizes
that society should collectively own means of production; private ownership is discouraged. In such
cases, only the public owns a property, there is no free market as prices will be set by the authority.

CONSTITUTION – refers to the body of rules and principles in accordance with which the powers of
sovereignty is regularly exercised

CONSTITUTION - latin word “constituo” which means “fixed”, “establish”, or “settled”

CONSTITUTION - it is a written instrument (document) by which the fundamental powers of

government are established, limited, and defined, and by which these powers are distributed among
several departments for their safe and useful exercise for the benefit of the body politic
STATE - The modern term “state” is derived from the word “status”. It was Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 –
1527) who first used the term “state” in his writings. His important work is titled as “Prince”.

STATE - The state is the most universal and most powerful of all social institutions. The state is a
natural institution. Aristotle said man is a social animal and by nature he is a political being. To him, to
live in the state and to be a man were identical.

ELEMENTS OF STATE

PEOPLE - People are the inhabitants of the state. It is the entire body of those citizens of the state who
are vested with political power for political purposes. There is no specific number of people required in
order that a state be considered as one.

TERRITORY - There can be no state without a fixed territory. People need territory to live and organize
themselves socially and politically. It may be remembered that the territory of the state includes land,
water and air – space.

GOVERNMENT - Government is the institution or aggregate of institutions by which an independent

society makes and carries out those rules of action which are necessary to enable men to live in a social
state, or which are imposed upon the people forming that society by those who possess the power or
authority of prescribing them.

SOVEREIGNTY - Sovereignty is referred to as the supreme, absolute and uncontrollable power by

which any state is governed. It has two manifestations: a) internal, which is the power of the State to
rule within its territory; and b) external, which is the freedom of the State to carry out its activities
without subjection to or control by other States. This is often called as independence.

Internal sovereignty - means that the State is supreme over all its citizens, and associations.

External sovereignty - means that the state is independent and free from foreign or outside control.

NATION - A nation is a stable community of people formed in the basis of a common language,
territory, economic life, ethnicity and/or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.

STATE AND SOCIETY - The society consists of a large number of individuals, families, groups and
institutions. The early political thinkers considered both state and society as one. State is a part of
society but is not a form of society.
Differences between state and society:

Following are the differences between state and society.

1. State came into existence after the origin of the society. Society is prior to the state.

2. The scope of the state is limited. The scope of society is much wider.

3. State has fixed territory. Society has no fixed territory.

4. State is a political organisation. Society is a social organisation.

5. The state has power to enforce laws. Society has no power to enforce laws.

STATE AND NATION - The word “nation” is derived from the Latin word “natio” which means birth or
race. The terms nation and state are used as synonym. According to Leacock, a nation is a body of
people united by common descent and language

Difference between State Nation:

1. State. Existed not only at present but also in the ancient period. Nation. Modern phenomenon.

2. State. It is legal political. Nation. It is racial cultural.

3. State. People organised for law within a definite territory. Nation. People psychologically joined
together with common will to live together.

4. State. A state must be sovereign. Nation. People continue as a nation even if they do not remain
sovereign.

5. State. Inhabited by heterogeneous groups of people. Nation. Inhabited by homogeneous groups

of people.

STATE AND GOVERNMENT - Government is often used with the ‘state’ as synonym. But both the
government and the state are two different entities. There are differences between the state and the
government.

Difference between State and Government:

1. State consists of population, territory, government and Sovereignty while Government is part of
the state.

2. State possesses original powers while powers of the government are derived from the state.

3. State is permanent and continues forever while government is temporary. It may come and go.

4. State is abstract and invisible while government is concrete and is visible.

GLOBALIZATION - The term GLOBALIZATION encompasses a range of social, political, and economic
changes. It expands and accelerates the exchange of ideas and commodities over vast distance.

GLOBALIZATION - Is the process through which societies have become so intertwined or

interconnected that events and decisions in one part of the world have significant effects on the lives of
people in the part of the world.

POWER – is the capability to control and influemce people’s behavior as well as the capability to direct
the paths and result of events. It can be percieved as good or bad.

1. REWARD POWER – is the capability to compensate other person for compliance. Ex. A manager’s
authority to promote an employee.

2. COERCIVE POWER – is the ability to punish a person in case of noncompliance. Ex. If an employer
forces or threats his employee to do an act whether lawful or unlawful

3. REFERENT POWER – if a leader is charismatic the people automatically follow him. Ex. Charismatic
people are Pope John Paul II and President Duterte

4. INFORMATIONAL POWER – when a person holds information that may significantly affects the
decision of a person
5. EXPERT POWER – based on knowledge or information value

6. LEGITIMATE POWER – based on position or formal authority