Politics and Political Science? Key Terms, Types of Regimes, Sources of Political Power & Legitimacy
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Overview
Politics impact our lives every day. Our political choices determine our government, which, in turn, determines whether we can vote or consume alcohol, how much we pay in taxes, whether we can serve in the armed forces, which utilities we use, where we can build a home, whether we can run a business in that home, how much money we can get as a loan for educational expenses, and even which types of food we eat. Just about everything in our lives is affected by politics and government.
The democratic system of government in the United States is just one way of organizing a political system. Throughout history, there have been many systems of government and many different types of democracies. Political science is the attempt to study politics and government in a systematic way in order to learn how power works. Political scientists study systems of government and democracies, as well as how governments relate to one another and how political systems change over time. As an academic discipline, political science is fairly new, but people have studied politics for thousands of years.
What Is Political Science?
Political science is the systematic study of politics, or the process by which governmental decisions are made. As a famous definition puts it, politics is determining who gets what, where, when, and how. The political scientist is an objective observer who asks questions about and studies the effects and structures of different systems of governments.
A Brief History of Political Science
Political science originated with the ancient Greeks in the first century BCE. During this time, the philosopher Plato wrote numerous dialogues about politics, asking about the nature of justice, what constitutes good government, and what is truly best for humanity. His student Aristotle worked in a more scientific way, observing and describing types of governments systematically. At the start of the seventeenth century, people began to apply the methods of the scientific revolution to politics. Thomas Hobbes, for example, employed the methods of geometry to break government down into its most basic parts in order to understand it. In the nineteenth century, thinkers such as Karl Marx and Max Weber used sociological methods to analyze politics.
Political Science Today
In the last few decades, political science has become more solidly established. Political professionals work on campaigns (as well as news shows) at all levels to help sway voters, and many elected officials analyze data to help make policy choices. Today, many political scientists use statistics and other quantitative methods to study a variety of issues, such as voting, Congress, and the presidency.
Key Terms
Political scientists rely on several important concepts:
- Power: The ability to get others to do what you want. Power can take many forms, from brute force to articulate persuasion.
- Government: The organization of power within a society, specifically how power is divided and used.
Example: The government of the United States is a democracy established by the Constitution.
- Regime: Any particular government.
- Legitimacy: Occurs when citizens accept the political decisions made by the governing body. A government is considered legitimate if its citizens think it right, lawful, and proper that the government should hold power. A threat to legitimacy seriously undermines the power of the government.
- Authority: The ability of the government to exercise power without resorting to violence. A government with a high level of legitimacy tends to have a high level of authority. Its citizens usually obey the law because they think it is the right thing to do, not because they are afraid of punishment.
Example: When asked by a police officer to clear the street, most Americans will do so because they respect the right of the officer to use power.
- Sovereignty: The right to exercise political power over a group of people or a geographical area. A government is considered sovereign if it has the final word on political decisions within its boundaries. When citizens can appeal to a higher body, the government is not sovereign.
Example: State governments in the United States have a great deal of power, but ultimately they are not sovereign because the federal government can overrule them.
Types of Regimes
Political scientists refer to regimes using many different terms. Which term political scientists use often depends on two factors: the number of people with political power and the amount of power the government itself exerts.
The chart below organizes regimes by the number of people who hold political power.
| REGIMES AND NUMBER OF PEOPLE WITH POWER | ||
| Type of Regime | Number of People Who Hold Power | Example |
| Monarchy | One | Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Brunei, medieval England |
| Dictatorship | One | Libya, Cuba, North Korea, Nazi Germany |
| Aristocracy | A few (usually a small ruling class) | Ancient Sparta |
| Oligarchy | A few (usually a small group of wealthy individuals) | Renaissance Venice |
| Democracy | Many or all | United States, ancient Athens |
A wide variety of regime types exist. For example, the United Kingdom has a constitutional monarchy, in which Queen Elizabeth holds a limited amount of power. Theoretically, the queen is the English head of state, but over time the English monarchy has become largely ceremonial. Real governmental power now rests with the Parliament, the legislative, lawmaking body. In contrast, the Third Reich of World War II was a totalitarian dictatorship. Adolf Hitler controlled the government and the citizens of Nazi Germany.
The chart on the next page organizes regimes by the amount of power the government possesses.
| Regimes and Amount of Government Power | ||
| Type of Regime | Amount of Governmental Power | Example |
| Totalitarian | Absolute power; controls every aspect of its citizens’ lives | Soviet Union, North Korea, Nazi Germany |
| Autocratic | Less powerful than a totalitarian regime but still controls most aspects of its citizens’ lives; often associated with a single ruler; often arbitrary | Iraq before the 2003 American invasion |
| Authoritarian | Less power than totalitarian regime but still controls most aspects of its citizens’ lives; often outlasts its rulers | China, Egypt |
| Constitutional | Limited by specific rules, such as the citizens’ right to free speech or freedom of religion | United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan |
| Anarchist | No power, or simply no government; can occur when a government loses its power | Somalia |
Democracies
The word democracy comes from the Greek words demos, which means “the people,” and cracy, which means “rule by.” Today, we call a regime a democracy when many or all of its people share political power. There are two types of democracies:
- Direct democracy: Citizens make all the decisions. They gather frequently to vote on laws, regulations, and appointments. There are no elected representatives. Direct democracy was common in ancient Greece; today, it exists at a local level in town hall meetings held throughout the United States.
- Representative democracy: Citizens elect officials to act on their behalf. If the officeholders disappoint or anger them, the citizens can choose new officials at the next election. A regime that runs by representative democracy is known as a republic. In a republic, citizens hold the power. There are two major types of representative democracies:
- Parliamentary democracy: Citizens elect officials to act as legislators. The legislature then elects the executive (frequently called the prime minister) from its members
Example: Many European democracies use a parliamentary system. One advantage of this type of democracy is its ability to quickly respond to public opinion. If the prime minister loses the confidence of voters, new elections can be held immediately. But parliamentary governments can be unstable. Perhaps the classic example is Italy, which changed governments about once a year for fifty years following World War II.
- Presidential democracy: Citizens elect the legislators and executive separately. No one can be both a legislator and the executive at the same time.
Example: The United States is a presidential democracy. Although a presidential system can be slow to respond to changes in public opinion, it is likely to be more stable than a parliamentary system.
| Strengths and weaknesses of democracies | ||
| Direct Democracy | Representative Democracy | |
| Strengths | Most purely democratic form of government because the people literally rule | Can take place in a much larger country; grants citizens much more time to pursue private interests |
| Weaknesses | Difficult to form except in small communities; demands constant attention from its citizens | Can be slow to respond to public opinion; sometimes defies public opinion |
Key Features of a Democracy
All democracies, in theory, should provide four basic things:
- Security: Like all governments, a democracy should protect its citizens from danger and threats, both national and abroad.
- Liberty: A democracy bestows on its citizens the right to do certain things without interference. The most common liberties are freedom of speech, thought, religion, and assembly. Most democratic governments are limited—that is, there are fundamental rights that the government cannot take from its citizens.
- Political equality: All citizens should be treated the same way. Each person gets one vote in elections, and the law is the same for all people.
- Popular sovereignty: In a democracy, supreme power rests with the people. The people choose their government, and the people can change the government when they see fit. In return, the government should do what the people want.
In reality, these features do not always fit together well, and democracies must work to create a balance. But the balance changes as the people decide they want to emphasize one feature over another. Sometimes strengthening one feature causes another feature to decrease or to disappear.
Liberty vs. Security
For the most part, Americans tend to value liberty more than anything else. However, since the attacks of September 11, 2001, Americans have become more concerned with issues of security. In response, the government has increased security by limiting some freedoms—making it easier for the government to investigate its citizens, for instance.
Sources of Political Power
Where does political power come from? Scholars have developed two models to explain the source of political power:
- Percolation-up model: Political power rests with the citizens. In turn, citizens grant political power to their leaders through elections. This view appeals to our democratic sensibilities, but it may not be correct. After all, throughout most of human history—and in many parts of the world today—strong and stable governments ignored their citizens.
- Drip-down model: Political power rests with the leaders, who organize society and impose order. Nevertheless, citizens retain the power to overthrow the government by electing new leaders.
Political scientists use both of these views in different circumstances. Sometimes change happens in a society because of a genuine grassroots effort. In other cases, government leaders create a policy and impose it on the people. And sometimes both happen.
The Models in Action
The civil rights movement in the United States had elements of both percolation-up and drip-down models of power. Much of the original push for the movement came from African Americans, who were angry about their status as second-class citizens. They organized and staged a variety of protests to bring about change—an example of the percolation-up model in action. After it became apparent that many state governments (especially, but not only, in the South) would resist giving African Americans equal rights, the federal government began asserting its power to enforce laws and court decisions—an example of the drip-down model in action.
Sources of Political Legitimacy
All governments need legitimacy to survive. But how do governments attain authority? What makes citizens obey or feel loyal toward their governments? Scholars have answered these questions by concluding that political legitimacy comes from several sources:
- Tradition: The government has authority because its citizens have a long tradition of giving it authority and respect. This source mostly comes into play with governments that have been around for a long time.
- Habit: Most people are raised to obey the laws, and they thereby acquire the habit of obeying. Citizens give their government legitimacy and authority because that is what they have always done.
- History: People remember great deeds and events in the country’s history, and they obey the government out of a sense of historical pride.
- Religion: In some places, obedience to the government is seen as a religious obligation.
Example: Iran is a constitutional Islamic republic. Some of its governing bodies are elected, whereas others are put into place for religious reasons.
- Ethnic identity: Countries composed of exclusively one ethnic group or whose regime is strongly connected to one ethnic group can inspire obedience through ethnic identity. Members of that ethnic group respect the government because of its link to their ethnicity.
Example: Saddam Hussein’s Sunni regime in Iraq once inspired a great deal of loyalty in Sunni Arabs.
- Results: If a government succeeds in some way—for instance, through a military victory or a thriving economy—citizens may feel loyalty because of that success.
- Elections: A government that holds elections gains legitimacy because citizens believe that the government, composed of elected officials, represents them.
- International recognition: A government gains legitimacy when other governments recognize it and welcome it to the international community.
Example: The United States and many European countries moved quickly to publicly recognize the controversial new nation-state of Israel when it was created in 1948. Although most countries formally recognize Israel and the Israeli government today, Iran and many Arab countries still do not, which is one reason why the Middle East remains such a hot spot in global politics.
Taiwan, an island that was under Chinese control up until the end of World War II, still has not received formal recognition as a nation-state to this day. Not even the United States has formally recognized Taiwan, fearing that doing so would sour American relations with China, which still claims the island. As a result, the people and government of Taiwan have lived in fear that no other country would help them if China tried to retake control of the island by force.
