1.
2 → Defining Political Organizations
- Political systems comprise the laws, ideas, and procedures that address who should
have authority to rule and what the government’s influence on its people and economy
should be.
- States are political organizations that combine a permanent population with governing
institutions to exercise control over a defined territory with international recognition.
- States are like the UN countries (US, India, Nigeria, etc)
- Nation without a state → Kurds
- Regimes refer to the fundamental rules that control access to and the exercise of
political power. Regimes typically endure from government to government.
- A regime can be characterized as democratic or authoritarian based on how it sets rules
or makes decisions about how to exercise power.
- Government is the set of institutions or individuals legally empowered to make binding
decisions for a state.
- A government’s authority is derived from the state’s legitimate right to use power to
enforce policies and decisions; the right and power to govern itself without outside
interference is a crucial aspect of a state’s sovereignty.
- A sovereign state has independent legal authority over a population in a particular
territory.
Sovereignty State’s independent legal authority over a
population in a particular territory.
Authority Government’s right to rule – legitimate
right to use power to enforce policies and
decisions
(Only in hands of government officials)
Power Ability to get someone to do what you
want them to do
(Only in hands of the state…not
government officials)
- A nation is a group of people with commonalities including race, language, religion,
ethnicity, political identity, and aspirations.
- In ethnic nations, membership within a specific national identity is based
specifically on a common ethnic identity. Examples include European ethnic
groups such as Swedes and Estonians; the Kurds in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey; and
Chechens in Russia.
- In civic nations, members of the nation are united by multiethnic cultural features
and citizenship within the state rather than by shared ethnic identity. Examples
include the United States and Great Britain, whose citizenry is ethnically
heterogeneous.
- Some simpler definitions:
- Authority → right to use power
- State → unified political entity that has a monopoly on the use of force within its
borders
- Sovereignty → ultimate authority over their territory
- Government → individuals who exercise authority for the state, run the political
institutions that make public policy
- Nation → a self-identified group that shares a common culture, ethnicity,
language, or religion and aspires for political control
1.3 → Democracy vs. Authoritarianism
- Factors that indicate the degree of democracy or authoritarianism of states include the
extent of state adherence to rule of law, such as:
- a. The principle that a state should be governed by law and not arbitrary
decisions made by individual government officials (Rule OF law vs Rule BY law)
- b. The degree of state influence on or control of the media
- c. The degree and practice of free and fair elections
- d. The degree of transparency of governmental decision making
- e. The nature of citizen participation in government
- Democratic characteristics
- Free and fair elections
- Competitive elections
- Government-developed policies and procedures that guarantee due process,
accountability, and transparency in decision making
- Political and civil rights are possessed by all
- Independent judiciary
- Elected government officials who exercise authority over the government
- Rule of Law
- Authoritarian characteristics
- Limited political participation
- Limited autonomy of society from state control
- Limitations placed upon political opposition
- Little political accountability or transparency
- The branches of national government in democratic regimes are more likely to be
independent of one another than in authoritarian regimes.
- Independence can serve to prevent any one branch from controlling all governmental
power.
- Regime change occurs when a political system moves from a democratic system to
authoritarian or vice versa.
- Authoritarian regime is a system of government where power is invested in a small group
of people who exercise power over the state without being constitutionally responsible to
the public.
- Authoritarian regimes include:
- Illiberal democracies or hybrid regimes
- These are regimes in which elements of democracy are integrated into an
otherwise authoritarian regime.
