INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL SCIENCE

LECTURES
1. Political Science and the Study of Politics
2. Power, Legitimacy and Political System
3. The Multiple Forms of Political Organisations
4. The Nation-State
5. Ideologies
+ Seminar: Religion and Political Regimes

SESSION 1: POLITICAL SCIENCE AND THE STUDY OF

POLITICS
‣ WHAT IS POLITICS? DEFINITIONS OF POLITICS AND OF THE “POLITICAL REALM”

POLITICS
1. “The process by which people negotiate and compete in the process of making and
executing shared or collective decisions” (Hague, Harrop, McCormick)
2. “The activities associated with the governance of a country or area, especially the
debate between parties having power”

The political can be broken down into three dimensions.

- POLITY — General organisation of the political community, institutions, type of state.
- nation-state, welfare state, empire, etc.
- POLITICS — Political processes and activities.
- the ‘political game’, the process of struggling for power, of choosing or replacing
leaders, of striking, etc.
- POLICY — The outcomes of these processes. Decisions and actions attributable to
public authorities in specific domains of society.
- foreign policy, economic policy, social policy, etc.

(DE)POLITICISATION — the process by which any given issue becomes (or not) a
political issue in a given society. E.g. air pollution, death penalty.

IS POLITICS UNAVOIDABLE?
- MARX/ENGELS: politics as “merely the organised power of one class for oppressing
another”. Therefore, if the capitalism system was overthrown, politics would no longer
exist due to the lack of competing classes.
- FUKUYAMA: “the end of history” — the endpoint of ideological evolution coming,
everyone agrees that there is one desirable way to run a state: democratic government
and free enterprise — proven unlikely.
- Most believe that politics is unavoidable because all societies contain differences that
have to be managed in some way.
THE BOUNDARIES OF DEFINING POLITICS
- Defining politics complicated due to the questions of where the boundaries of
what is political and what is not should be drawn.
- Traditionally, a narrow definition of politics, centred on the state as the key political
institution.
- WEBER: the state has a “monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force in enforcing
its order within a given territorial area”
- the highest authority in a society, and as such is sovereign; it has no legitimate
competitors for authority either inside the state in the domestic realm or outside in
the international system
- Others argue that politics needs to be defined far more broadly, to include power
relations in social institutions such as the family or political institutions at the
supranational level.
- FOUCAULT: “politics is the use of power and can thus be found everywhere that people
interact.”
- COLIN HAY (2002): “the political should be defined in such a way as to encompass the
entire sphere of the social.”
- Feminists argue that the personal realm is political as a result of the continued
dominance of men in personal relationships and the family — hence the slogan “the
personal is the political.”

‣ HOW CAN THERE BE A SCIENCE OF POLITICS?

POLITICAL SCIENCE
Defined most briefly as ‘the science of politics’. It is a social science and it studies politics
as an element of social life.

SOCIAL SCIENCE — to explain social phenomena by social phenomena

(Durkheim), to establish the social causes of social behaviours.
Like all social sciences, 3 major characteristics:
1. “axiological neutrality” or “value neutrality” (Weber): separation of analysis and
value judgement
2. ambition of systemisation: identifies trends and patterns, regularities; relies on
theories and concepts
3. use of scientific methods: qualitative and quantitative (statistics and surveys,
interviews, observation, archives)

THREE STREAMS OF THE TEACHING OF POLITICS

- POLITICAL THEORY/PHILOSOPHY — the study of political ideas
- COMPARATIVE POLITICS — the study of political institutions and processes within states
- GLOBAL POLITICS/INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS — the study of relations between states

The study of politics can have two different goals:

- to understand how politics works — how power is shared (or not), how decisions are
made, how revolutions happen, etc.
- to change how politics works — how to promote a more equal share of power, how to
make better decisions, etc.

Political science is derived from philosophy, Plato (tried to discover for how to rule the
best way possible) and Aristotle (analysed how actual polities function) are considered its
“founding fathers”.

It aims to explain phenomena and to develop theories beyond the particular cases it
observes in a value neutral way.

‣ THE VARIOUS APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF POLITICS

DIFFERENT APPROACHES
(i.e. different ways of looking at political phenomena)
- THEORETICAL APPROACHES — study of political concepts.
political philosophy (prescribes what should be) vs. political theory (makes sense of
what is)
- EMPIRICAL APPROACHES — study of phenomena that can be observed.
quantitative (relevant phenomena can be brought to numeric form and analysed with
mathematic tools allowing for large studies) vs. qualitative (prefers to study smaller
phenomena in a more intensive, fine-grained way)

Behaviouralists suggest that the study of politics can have the scientific rigour of the
natural sciences. Opponents of this view argue that political behaviour is inconsistent with
scientific “laws,” and that the study of politics neither is nor should be “value-free” in the
way that the natural sciences are.

THREE MAJOR KINDS OF POLITICAL ANALYSIS

- NORMATIVE — asks questions about values: whether, when, and why we ought to value
for example freedom, or under what circumstances we should or should not obey the
laws of the state. The goal is to identify what is good, what we ought to want, or which
alternative is better.
- EMPIRICAL — identifies observable phenomena in the real world with a view to
establishing what is as opposed to what ought to be. Brings the impartial and value-free
methods of the natural sciences to the study of political phenomena.
- SEMANTIC — concerned with the meaning of the concepts we use, where these concepts
came from, and why and how we use them, especially as many key concepts in politics
do not have a commonly accepted definition.

Another fundamental division runs not between the types of methods used, but between
the modes of explanation for political phenomena.

THREE TYPES OF EXPLANATION (C. PARSONS)

- INTERESTS — people have objective, material interests. They act to maximise their
interests as rational beings.
- INSTITUTIONS — politics is a game with predefined rules. Individuals do what they think
is best for them given the rules of the game.
- IDEAS —people have different ideas and values about what is good. These ideas drive
them when they interpret a situation or make choices.

EXPLANATORY WHY IS POLITICS DIFFERENT IN

CORE HYPOTHESIS
APPROACH DIFFERENT PLACES AND TIMES?
RATIONALIST- Most people choose the most All people are rational and similar, but
MATERIALIST advantageous actions given their their material surroundings vary.
position in the material landscape.
INSTITUTIONALIST Most people choose the most All people are rational and similar, but the
advantageous actions given their organisations and rules around them vary.
position in an obstacle course of
organisations and rules.
IDEATIONAL People act in accordance with beliefs People have different beliefs about how the
about how the world works and what is world works and what is right.
right.

SESSION 2: POWER, LEGITIMACY AND POLITICAL

SYSTEM
‣ POWER, INFLUENCE AND AUTHORITY

POWER — A CENTRAL CONCEPT TO POLITICAL PROCESSES

Power is based on the threat of coercion (sanction) — I can force you to do what I want
you to do.

SUBSTANTIALIST approach
- Power as something one can possess
- Power to do something = the ability to produce intended effects

RELATIONAL/INTERACTIONIST approach
- Power as a social relation
- Power over someone = the ability to have someone do what you want them to do

THE THREE FACES OF POWER (S. LUKES)

DECISION-MAKING AGENDA-SETTING IDEOLOGICAL

“The ability of a person A to get a
person B to do something they
would not have done without the
intervention of A”
Who decides in cases where
preferences conflict?
Robert Dahl (Who governs, 1961)
Where the power of A over B leads Invisible power linked to the
B not to act or not to adopt a internalisation of constraint “by
particular behaviour influencing, shaping or
determining their very wants”
Who controls which preferences Who shapes preferences?
are expressed?
Peter Bachrach and Morton Steven Lukes (Power, a radical
Baratz (Dynamics of non- view, 1974)
decision-making,1962)
POLITICAL POWER
- Exercised over the whole society
- Defines the prerogatives and limits of all other powers exercised in society
- Claims for itself alone the monopoly of legitimate violence/physical constraint
(Weber)

WHY DO PEOPLE OBEY?

For Weber, power is not enough: a government relying on coercion alone is unstable
and weak. A stable government relies not only on brute power, but also on some form of
acceptance of power. This distinguishes power (force) and authority (acceptance).

➡ AUTHORITY = POWER + LEGITIMACY

POWER becomes AUTHORITY (Weber) when there is a belief that the rulers have a right to
exercise power and to be obeyed — LEGITIMACY.

POWER — MACHT (WEBER)

Every chance of imposing one’s own will within a social relation, even against resistance,
regardless of what this chance is based upon.

RULE — HERRSCHAFT (WEBER)

The chance of having an order with a specific content obeyed by specifiable persons.

‣ LEGALITY AND LEGITIMACY

Legality is concerned with formal procedures. Legitimacy is concerned with the beliefs
of those who accept power.

THE THREE TYPES OF LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY (MAX WEBER)

- T RADITIONAL — Derives its legitimacy from customs and is based on
habit. Naturalisation of power. Necessity to act in accordance to tradition or
legitimacy will vanish.
- CHARISMATIC — Exceptional or transitory situations. Authority linked to the belief in
the exceptional qualities of an individual. A precarious situation, “inherently
unstable”. (Weber)
- LEGAL-RATIONAL — Exercise of power is organised by written rules defining the
right and duties of each (rulers and ruled). Depersonalisation of the exercise of
power, based on general, systematic rules and expertise. Administrative and judicial
power.

HERRSCHAFT
The central concept of Weber’s political thought. Translated as: ‘DOMINATION’, ‘RULE’,
‘AUTHORITY’, ‘LEADERSHIP’, ‘IMPERATIVE COORDINATION’, etc.
‣ THE CONCEPT OF POLITICAL SYSTEM

DAVID EASTON — THE SYSTEMIC

APPROACH
POLITICAL PROCESS — ‘the study of politics is
concerned with understanding how authoritative
decisions are made and executed for a society’.

INPUTS = stimulus from the environment (demands and support)

OUTPUTS = authoritative decisions (policies)
POLITICAL SYSTEM = conversion of inputs into outputs
FEEDBACK = how decisions made affect demands and support (reelection, protests, etc.)

SESSION 3: THE MULTIPLE FORMS OF POLITICAL

ORGANISATIONS
‣ FROM TRIBAL STRUCTURES TO THE NATION-STATE: AN OVERVIEW OF THE MULTIPLE
FORMS OF POLITICAL ORGANISATION

POLITICAL SYSTEM
A universal but abstract model.

‣ TYPOLOGIES AND CLASSIFICATIONS OF THE FORMS OF POLITICAL ORGANISATION

4 BASIC TYPES OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS

- RULE-MAKING INSTITUTIONS
- RULE-APPLYING INSTITUTIONS
- RULE-ADJUDICATING INSTITUTIONS
- RULE-ENFORCING INSTITUTIONS

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‣ KEY CONCEPTS: REGIMES AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT

SESSION 4: THE NATION-STATE

‣ THE ORIGINS OF SOVEREIGN STATES

‣ HISTORICAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE STATE: ABSOLUTISM, THE LIBERAL STATE,

WELFARE STATES

‣ STATES AND NATIONS

SESSION 5: IDEOLOGIES
‣ WHAT IS AN IDEOLOGY?

‣ KEY TRADITIONAL IDEOLOGIES: LIBERALISM, CONSERVATISM AND SOCIALISM

‣ OTHER TRADITIONAL IDEOLOGIES: NATIONALISM, FASCISM AND ANARCHISM

‣ FROM THE “END OF IDEOLOGY” TO NEW IDEOLOGIES: FEMINISM,

ENVIRONMENTALISM, NEOLIBERALISM, POPULISM, AND RELIGIOUS
FUNDAMENTALISM