Power in American Society Political Science 110J Power in American Society

Course Website adamgomez.wordpress.com/teaching/110JFA2010 All course documents (syllabus, lecture slides, essay prompts, online readings) can be found here

Key terms & ideas Ideal types Abstracted for understanding Never found in pure form

Sources of Power (broadly): Power and authority Legitimacy Sources of Power (broadly): Force Economy Politics Sources of Legitimacy: Law Culture, religion, custom Charisma

Two Kinds of Liberty Ideal types, almost never encountered in pure form Negative Liberty is having no masters Absence of constraint Positive Liberty is being your own master Constraint can be used to help you act as you would if you had better understanding

Telos The end of a thing as a part of that thing Example: acorns & oak trees Teleology (teleological) Understanding a thing with its telos in mind Linear movement toward the telos of a thing

Two major political philosophies inform the structure of American government liberalism & republicanism

Liberalism Emphases: Primacy of reason Reason vs. passion, interest Universal rights Negative liberty The market Individuals

Republicanism Emphases Value of citizenship Ties that bind citizens to state and vice versa Community & communal identity Positive liberty Virtue and corruption (faction, interest) Classicalist

What is power? How do we talk about it? What does it mean to be free? What is America? Who is an American? What is the American telos? Is there one? Who are we, and what will we do?