1. 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

2. 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”

3. 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

4. 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

5. Our Job
Understand/analyze political change
Find out who governs