What is Power, Authority, and Sovereignty

What are the 3 definitions of power according to D.D. Raphael?

1. Ability to do something

2. Ability to convince others to do something (Soft power)

3. Ability to force others to do something (hard power)

What are the 3 modern theories on state power?

1. Conservative/ Realpolitik View

2. Liberal View

3. Marxist View

What is the Conservative/ Realpolitik View of state power?

• Power of state is necessary to order in an anarchic world

• International Relations Realists

Whose ideas fall into a conservative/ Realpolitik View of state power?

• Thomas Hobbes

• Machiavelli

What is the Liberal View of state power?

• power of the state is dangerous and need to be kept in check by the rights of citizens and the constitution

• Internaltion Relations Idealists

Whose ideas fall into a liberal view of state power?

• JS Mill

• John Locke

What is the marxist view of state power?

• power of the state is illusionary; real power is economic and it is oppressive

• states protect the interests of the doninant class

• revolution is needed

whose ideas fall into the marxist view of state power?

• Karl Marx

• Antonia Gramsci-Hegemony

What did Antonia Gramsci-Hegemony Argue?

• Power in a liberal democracy did not only find it’s roots in economics, but in Hegemony (Culture power)

  • e.g. The American Dream

What is the post-modern view of state power?

• power is not a capacity to be held but a force that circulates everywhere

  • systemic problems

  • it exists in all relationships between people and things

• power is not only repressive; it is creative and productive

What was Micheal Foucault’s view on power?

• Power extends beyond the state

  • “The State can only operate on the basis of other already existing power relations.”

• Power is not held by circulated

• There is a need to deconstruct power

What is Noam Chomsky’s view on power

• Modern Marxist

  • power is help by economic/political institutions/ elites

  • power is top down

  • power is coercive and repressive

  • revolution is needed to get rid of state

Where is Chomsky and Foucault disagree?

• Power is top down vs power circulates

• power is productive vs power is coercive, recessive

What does Foulcault mean by power is productive?

• power does not simply say “no” power creates new realities/norms in society

  • e.g. What is “right” and “wrong”

What is the basic definition of Authority?

A ‘legitimate’ exercise of power

What is the difference between Authority and power?

• power is the ability to do something

• authority is weather using ones power is ‘legitimate’

What was Max Weber’s view on authority?

• There are three types of authority

  • Rational Legal Authority

  • Tradition Authority

  • Charismatic Authority

What did Max Weber write, highlighting his view on Authority?

• Politics as a Vocation

• 1921

What is Rational Legal Authority according to Max Weber

• seen in the Modern State

• rule by virtue of holding office

• rule of law is the basis of authority

• obedience to the office holder not the individual (the title)

What is the rule of law?

The idea that no one of above the law

What is Traditional Authority according to Max Weber

• seen in Hereditary Monarchies

• rule by virtue of inherited right

• authority is organic; not enacted

• obedience is based on devotion/duty to the individual leader

What is Charismatic Authority according to Max Weber

• seen in individual political figures/leaders

• rule based on exceptional qualities of a person

• individual seen as a prophet, hero, or savior

• obedience is based on devotion/duty to the individual leader

What is the basic definition of Sovereignty?

Supreme power of lawmaking within a territory

What are the two aspects of sovereignty?

1. Relationship to ohter sates and international Institutions (e.g. International recognition)

2. Relationship to citizens and subgroups within nation (e.g. Qubec separatism)

What challenges sovereignty?

1. economic globalization

2. information/technology (travel of information)

3. movement of people

4. regional/national claim to sovereignty within a nation

5. Indigenous rights