STATE AND THE SOCIETY

POLITICS
- A Cultural universal common to all

societies is the exercise of power and authority - Harold Lasswell (1936 ) tersely defined politics as who gets what, when and how? which involves the struggle for power and authority

POWER
Is at the heart of the Political System According to Max Weber, power is the ability

to exercise ones will over others. Whoever can control the behaviour of others is exercising power.

3 Basic sources of Power

1. Force is the actual or threatened use of

coercion to impose ones will on others. e.g When leaders imprison or even execute political dissidents 2. Influence refers to the exercise of power through a process of persuasion. e.g A citizen may change his/her view of a Supreme Court nominee because of a newspaper editorial.

3. Authority refers to the institutionalized

power that is recognized by the people over whom it is exercised. Sociologists commonly use the term in connection with those who hold legitimate power through elected or publicly acknowledged positions. - Max Weber developed a classification system regarding authority that has become one of the most useful and frequently cited contributions of early sociology

3 IDEAL TYPES OF AUTHORITY

1. TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY 2. LEGAL-RATIONAL AUTHORITY 3. CHARISMATIC AUTHORITY

TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY
legitimate power is conferred by custom and

accepted practice For the Traditional leader, authority rests in custom, not in personal characteristics, technical competence, or even written law. People accept this authority because this is how things have always been done Traditional authority is absolute when the ruler has the ability to determine laws and politics

LEGAL-RATIONAL
POWER made by law Leaders derive their legal-rational authority

from written rules and regulations of political system such as Constitution. Leaders are thought to have specific areas of competence and authority, but are not thought to be endowed with divine inspiration, as in certain with traditional forms.

CHARISMATIC
Refers to the power made legitimate by a

leaders exceptional personal or emotional appeal to his/her followers. Charismatic leaders often become well known by breaking with established institutions and advocating dramatic changes in the social structure and economic system

 Politics (from Greek: politikos,

meaning "of, for, or relating to citizens") is the practice and theory of influencing other people on a civic or individual level. More narrowly, it refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance organized control over a human community, particularly a state.

Political system
is a framework which defines acceptable political methods within a given society. History of political thought can be traced back to early antiquity, with seminal works such as Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Politics and opus of Confucius.

STATE
The origin of the state is to be found in the

development of the art of warfare. Historically speaking, all political communities of the modern type owe their existence to successful warfare

 Kings, emperors and other types of monarchs in many countries including China and Japan, were

considered divine. Of the institutions that ruled states, that of kingship stood at the forefront until the French Revolution put an end to the "divine right of kings". Nevertheless, the monarchy is among the longest-lasting political institutions, dating as early as 2100 BC in Sumeria to the 21st Century AD British Monarchy. Kingship becomes an institution through heredity.

 The king often, even in absolute monarchies,

ruled his kingdom with the aid of an elite group of advisors, a Council without which he could not maintain power. As these advisors, and others outside the monarchy negotiated for power, constitutional , which may be considered the germ of constitutional government. Long before the council became a bulwark of democracy, it rendered invaluable aid to the institution of kingship by

1 Preserving the institution of kingship through heredity. 2 Preserving the traditions of the social order. 3 Being able to withstand criticism as an impersonal authority. 4 Being able to manage a greater deal of knowledge and action than a single individual such as the king.