Goverment & Politics Notes

• Politics is the activity through which people make, uphold and revise the general rules under which they live.

• General rules are the rules that affect how we interact more widely with other members of society (rules how we behave within a community).

• Politics focuses on public life; issues that affects all members of the community such as law and order, the economy, defence, social welfare etc.

• General rules are needed because of conflict. Politics exists because people disagree. Politics is about conflict and finding ways of resolving conflicts (conflict = competion between opposing forces, based on the existence of different opinions, wants and needs.
  

• Power = the ability to influence the behaviour of others through rewards or punishment.
• Power is a vital ingredient of politics. It is the factor that determines who gets what, when and how.
• Authority (legitimate power)= the right to exert the power that has been given to them, to influence the behaviour of others.
  
• What people believe they should follow rather then obeying through fear or intimidation.
• Three types of authority (according to Max Weber):

-Traditional authority: based on history and belief that something has always happened (status quo).

-Charismatic authority: based on personality.

-Legal-rational authority: most common form in politics, based on formal and impersonal rules.