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

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

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

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

5. 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

6. 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

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

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

9. 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

10. 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?