Political Science - Aurele's Courses

Is it really possible to define politics?

impossible to have well-defined politics, particularly impossible to define politics through their object

Objects are by definition

fluid 

Politics, policy, polity

can be used to describe all human relationships/power dynamics/etc

The personal/private is political

Slogan/argument of 2nd wave feminism (60s)

Geneviève Pruvost

• eco-feminist researcher

• Every day life and politics are not supposed to be together

Pruvost: Question Everything

Why in urban societies do we never see food in its natural state anymore? Gardens, fruit trees, etc

Epistemology

science that looks at science method (not history, more philosophical)

Weber’s theory on political science

the analysis of the exercise of physical creation through an organization in a defined territory

a lot of theories from anarchists said that politics cant be defined through

territory

ECONOMIC definition of social classes

• the place that people occupy in the productive apparatus

• not a question of money

CULTURAL definition of social classes

A way of life (according to your position in the society)

Diet and love relation

love = you generally fall in love with someone of your same class (shared way of life)

How can we explain how people dress

• not individual/free choice

• economic constraints

• anticipation of professional benefits (“respectability”)

• employees/factory workers

Choices w/in social classes: Bourdieu

• social classes as a game of opposition, of distinction between tastes/distastes

• tastes/disgusts expressed according to social class, but also w/in classes

3 capitals

• economic

• cultural

• social

Choices: Distinction through

detachement

Intersectionality

cross-analysis of diff. social characteristics (gender/race/disability/etc) » gives rise to specific social reality

US 2024 election: gender division

• 54% of men voted republican

• 54% of women voted democrat

US 2024 election: Age

• 18-29 = 55% dem

• 20-44 = 51% dem

• 45-64 = 53% rep

• 65+ = 50/50

US 2024 election: education

• w/degree = 57% dem

• no degree = 54% rep 

Sate Sovereignty": The king’s 2 bodies

• “the king is dead long live the king”

• even after his death the state still lives on

• 14th-16th century concept > before legitimacy came from religion

Sovereignty according to Jean Bodin

sovereignty is the power to make and break laws

Sovereignty’s 3 parts (Bodin)

• absolute

• perpetual

• one and indivisible 

Exclusivity (Sovereignty)

monopolization of power - ability to exert absolute power

Contract Theories - Hobbes ‘Leviathan’

• “Men are wolves to men”

Pact of Submission

we accept someone’s power to stop the war of all against all

3.5 main elements of a state

• permanent population

• defined territory

• government 

• + capacity to enter into relations with other states 

Is a state w/out a territory possible?: Stateless territories

oceans and arctics

Is a state w/out a territory possible?: Territoriless states

ukraine, palestine, etc

Population made from

nationals and residents

The state: a special form

“There is no king in the tribe, but a chief who is not a head of state…Simply the chief has no authority, no power of coercion, no means of giving orders. The chief is not a commander, the people of the tribe have no power to obey - the chiefdom is not a place of power”

Anarchism POV of the state

• order w/out power/authority (Foucault)

Anarchist focus

not only on opposition and critiquing the state but also on situations of communal living against the state

example of successful anarchist state

Chiapas in mexico

Europe particularly post fall of Roman empire

stateless - many degrees of small entities controlling diff areas

Historical explanations for creation of states:

• creation of monopoly (internal and external)

• Uniformisation and monopolization of taxation - by central power

creation of monopoly (internal and external)

• through war

• territory 

Uniformisation and monopolization of taxation - by central power

• Taxing everything (incl church etc)

• Less random system, more regularized/institutionalized

• Local taxes abolished

• Taxes justified today not to pay for war (as in past) but for social spending

Administration

• Becomes dedicated to the actions of the state as an institution

• When people in power change, the administration stays the same/endures

• Extremely recent modern form (2-3 centuries max)

4 waves of war/states

• Fall of empires

• wwi/ii

• Decolonization

• Fall of USSR

Welfare state

• State intervention not really the case before - state not solely focused on the army/justice

• Public services

• Distribution

Neo-Liberal

• Economy regulates (market independence) itself without intervention of state

• Proliferated in the 80s throughout western countries, particularly france

• Believes in slimming down of state

New public management (modern dev of state in terms of relations w/non-profit sector) 

• Transposition of private sector work organization into public sector

• pursuit of cost reductions, performance improvement (by any means), implies a better spending culture and reduction of unnecessary spending

3 types of association

• de facto

• declared

• association recognized as being of public interest 

Contractualization logic

private sector engaged to take on what the state cannot/doesnt want to handle anymore

Privatization of the public sphere

Cheaper to use association contracts for public service > not always always the case but often

You stand to lose everything as a protestor when you

depend on the state’s money

Maud Simonet > NY public park

• 60s-70s: only civil servants who cleaned public parks in NY, associations started to come in and do those jobs, less and less civil employees then

• Easier to use association > if you need budget you can stop the contract, rather than the impossible task of firing actual employees

• Now volunteers are even doing it > VOLUNTARIZATION of work place

Contractualization is not onyl at state level

instead of doing research you can ask McKinsey (or other consulting firms) to do it 

Political regime is different from a State

Regimes change (even from democracy to other types) but the state endures

Why do we need definitions of non-democratic regimes?

• Plato said that we had tyrannical regimes, french revolutionaries talked about autocracy

• constructed in opposition

No perfect definition of “democracy” or “totalitarianism” - why do we need definitions anyway? 

Because Nazi and Soviet regimes were so different but both so violent - we were in need of new notions, old ones weren't sufficient

When was the concept of totalitarianism created

1950s-60s

Hannah Arrendt & totalitarianism

Didnt try to only define through police, hitler, etc she tried to find the NATURE of totalitarianism

Ideology = a major role in Arrendt’s totalitarianism

• need to define an enemy

• For nazis it was non aryans and the jews

• For the soviets it was a fantastic bourgeois

Fragmentation of society (Arrendt/totalitarianism)

• Atomization of society

• Not to block unity but they fragment to create unity

• No unions, religions, no neighborhood solidarity, nothing to get in way of mass

• UNITY behind the ideology

Beyond ideology, what is essential in totalitarianism

repression

Hannah Arrendt definition of totalitarianism

the production of another humanity > the never ending search for a new humanity

Repression in Hannah Arrendt’s Totalitarianism

• Repression becomes an end in itself, the regimes essence

• Repression doesn't mean regime is in danger, but is trying to enter the regime into all parts of life

• Proactive repression

Arrendt’s definition is useful but perhaps too rigid

• Even nazi’s are not totalitarianism according to her definition

• There was still independence in some parts > religion was still active and not totally under nazi control for example

Carl Freidrich - takes parts from Arendt’s work but defines 6 keys points in defining totalitarianism 

1. totalist ideology

2. single party applying this ideology under one leader (dictator)

3. terroristic police control through secret police 

4. power controlling mass comms

5. weapon monopoly owned by power

6. centrally directed econ by power

authoritarianism 

• more recent term than totalitarianism

• from one part, those who govern dont rlly submit power to hazard of an open election

• dissident public opinion is repressed

SIMILARITIES authoritarianism/totalitarianism (EXAM)

• control over state apparatus

• control over media system

• restriction of public space and ban of dissident expressions 

• tight control of political life

DIFFERENCES authoritarianism vs totalitarianism (EXAM)

• no search for new humanity, no totalist ideology > regime solely looks for control of political sphere

• no fragmentation of society. standardization/absence of parties isnt necessary

• essentially, the ideology and the monolithism are absent/less pronounced 

Democracy Criterias

• separation of powers

• monitoring between the powers

• rule of law

• consent to taxation/representation

• separation of public/private 

Types of representative democracies

• presidential regime

• parliamentary regime

• other (ex. france) 

Presidential regimes

president does not respond to parliament and cannot dissolve it (ex. USA and Brazil)

• Huge separation between the two

• Not where the president is very very strong

• Aside from Juridical tool of impeachment

Parliamentary regime

the executive power responds to the parliament and can dissolve it (ex. Italy and Germany)

Mobilization - Theory of Relative Frustration

Frustration arises from perceived inequality, not actual need

Prisoner’s Dilemma

rationally nobody should mobilize > peer pressure and material advantages

How to explain that people mobilize without anything to gain?

• symbolic rewards of engagement

• identity

Mobilizing - Who and for whom?

2 main distinctions:

• interest groups/political parties

• identity groups and cause-driven groups

separation can be unclear

How to mobilize based on Repertoire of Collective Action  

• est by Charles Tilly

• means by which a group can act collectively on basis of shared interests

Other elements of “How to Mobilize”

• not all means can be used by any group at any time

• historical shift from local patronage (before 19th) to national autonomy

New Repertoire in mobilization

• internationalization

• expertise (use of cause lawyering)

• new causes

Cause Lawyering

lawyers use their legal skills to advance a political, social, or moral cause, rather than focusing solely on traditional client service or commercial goals.

Mobilization Critics

• focused on western world & around mobilization on groups w/large cultural capital

No mobilize or not to mobilize