7

• Politics


  Activities which people make to amend the general rules under which they live
• Politics


  • Exercise of power
• Types of Authority


  • Traditional
  • Charismatic
  • Rational-legal
• Traditional Authority


  • Believed to have "always existed"
  • Based on long-established customs
  • Does not need to be justified
• Charismatic Authority


  • Based on the extraordinary characteristics possessed by a certain individual
  • People with charisma are popular, highly persuasive, inspire loyalty
  • Seen as "born leaders" & "heroes"
  • Charisma (weber) "a certain quality of an individual personality.."
  • Most unstable type of authority - may "lose" their charisma when people's views regarding them change
• Rational-legal Authority


  • Legitimized by a clearly defined set of written laws
  • Most typical type of authority in modern societies
  • Leaders can rightfully wield authority through elections
  • Highest degree of stability
• Power


  Ability to achieve a desired outcome
• Power


  • One who exercises power
  • Another who is subject to it
• Authority


  • Legitimate power
  • The right to exercise power
• Political Organizations


  • Issues like allocation of all political roles
  • Level of political integration
  • Concentrations of power and authority
  • Mechanisms of social control and resolving conflicts
• Aspects in maintaining social order

  • Creating formal norms
  • Applying sanctions
  • Settling disputes among individuals
  • Settling disputes between nations
• Creating formal norms


  • Constitutional laws
  • Statutory
  • Common
• Band


  Very small nomadic group connected by family ties and politically independent
• Nomadic


  • Moving from place to place
  • Made up of hunter-gatherers
• Bands


  • Egalitarian societies
  • All persons of the same age and same gender are seen as equals
• Tribe


  • Combination of smaller kin or non-kin groups
  • Common culture
  • Act as one
  • Multi-grouped and bigger than bands
  • Have no formal leadership, egalitarian in nature
• Chiefdom


  • Political unit headed by a chief
  • More densely populated
  • Not egalitarian
  • Have social rank
  • Chief and his family holding power
  • Chief chosen by heredity
  • Chiefdom believe their chiefs are endowed with mana, a supernatural power that gives the right to rule
• Legitimacy

  • Latin: legitimare

  ~ meaning “to declare lawful” - rightfulness
• Max Weber


  • Studied the transformation of societies
  • The bases of legitimacy of rule vary in different types of societies
  • He formulated 3 types of authority
  • Explain why certain men rise to positions and why people obey them
• Nation


  • Distinct population
  • Bound together by a common culture
  • Within a specific geographic region
• Aspects of Nation


  • Cultural Community
  • Political Community
• State


  • Political unit that has sovereignty
  • Legitimate and ultimate authority of the state – over an area of territory and the people within it
• 3 types of authority (Weber) as "ideal or pure types"
• Forms of Legitimate Government

  • Communism (Marxism)
  • Constitutional (law is supreme over private will)
  • Democracy (legally accountable to people)
  • Fascism (headed by a dictator)
  • Monarchy (monarch)