Political Questions Who Governs? To What Ends? Not always easy to tell Competing views cannot all be correct To What Ends? Short term and long term perspectives
Political Power Definition- Authority? Legitimacy? The ability of one person to get another person to act in accordance with the first person’s intentions Authority? The right to use power- informal and formal Legitimacy? What makes a law or constitution a source of right What once was “private” are now considered “public”
Democracy- “The Rule of Many” Direct Democracy Why mostly abandoned today? Representative Democracy Elitist? What did our framers think? Does it still hold true today? How is political power distributed in a representative democracy? Majoritarian politics vs. Non-majoritarian politics
Theories of Who Governs Marxists Government a reflection of economic forces Power Elite Power elite a mix of corporate leaders, military, and political leaders Weber- Bureaucrats Bureaucracies based on expertise, specialized competence Pluralist Power dispersed- policies are the outcome of compromise among competing groups
Our Job Understand/analyze political change Find out who governs