Lexicon Basic concepts required for study of government

Defining concepts Lets not be Humpty Dumpties! Don’t stipulate! Be ostensive! In what different ways is the word used? Define it by saying what it isn’t Venn diagrams: what other concepts does it overlap?

What are the schools of thought available to us? That’s a matter for Political theory module But: still Marxist, Weberian Probably functionalist, neo-functionalist Definitely feminist Neo-conservative Neo-liberal Chicago school too

Institutions State Executive Legislature Assembly Judiciary

State Marx “the executive committee of the bourgeoisie” an instrument of class oppression Weber: “the human community that [successfully] claims the monopoly of legitimate force within a given territory” [the modern state, remember]

The State [2] The state is to be distinguished from civil society [public life and private life] The state includes government as well as other institutions The state endures where individual governments even systems of government come and go

Executive Supposed to carry out/ implement the laws passed by the legislature As policy-making became more specialist, power passed to “experts” employed within civil service As foreign policy became more important and technology shrank time and distance, policy had to be made more quickly. Everything’s an emergency

Legislature Supposed to make law. Doesn’t cos it cant Deliberative function Tax-passing Forum of accountability [?] Committee systems review detail Other committees hold individual policy making structures to account Soap opera? Or now part of the “dignified” aspect of politics?

Politics power Government/institutions Allocation of values “Party politics” Decision-making/policy making Arbitrating between competing claims Allocating scarce resources

Power, authority and legitimacy Power has notion of coercion within it Influence more persuasive Authority = legitimate power More legitimacy you have, less power [coercive force] you have to use Using force expensive Legitimacy means citizens accept your right to take decisions for them

Ideology Opposite of pragmatic [yet pragmatism can be an ideology] Originally meant the study of ideas Marx made it the belief system that defined a class But also said that the ideas of the ruling class were dominant/ hegemonic Key Cold War concept

Ideology 2 In Cold War “their” policies were derived from ideology i.e. were irrational And not what a pragmatic person would have decided was in the interests of the public “They” would say that their policies were about the achievement of “ideals” Hence the frequent misspelling idealogy!

Nation, Race, Class, Gender, Age Are nations mythical? Is there a British nation? Scottish, Welsh English and irish nations? Geordie, Liverpudlians, Brummies, Estuarine Essex girls Or are these races. Does it matter? Yes if it produces political party cleavages