Key Concepts in Political Science: Power, States, and Nations

Terrorball and the Perception of Risk

• Terrorball is a concept wherein a terrorist wins if he or she successfully scares or harms citizens, thereby creating the appearance that the government has failed in its primary duty to protect its people.
• Despite public perception, the statistical likelihood of an individual being killed by a terrorist is effectively near zero.
• Comparative risk statistics highlight the emotional nature of terrorball defenses:
  • Approximately $120$ people die daily in automobile accidents.
  • The homicide rate in the United States is $6$ times higher than in similar nations.
  • Neither traffic fatalities nor general homicides elicit the same emotional zeal as the lower risk associated with terrorism.
• Theoretical policy alternatives to "terrorball defense" (such as intrusive airport security) include lowering speed limits or reducing the number of privately owned guns, which currently number over $200 \times 10^6$.

The Nature and Definition of Power

• Power is a fundamental, defining concept in political science that governs resource distribution, international interaction, and conflict resolution.
• The term originates from the Latin word potere, meaning the ability to affect something else.
• Power functions at two primary levels:
  • The ability to influence an event or outcome to achieve a specific objective.
  • The ability to influence another agent to act in a way they would not otherwise choose.
• A defining characteristic of power is volition (will or choice); an outcome achieved by chance rather than intent is not considered an exercise of power.
• Power exists in two states:
  • Latent Power: Inactive or held in reserve, such as military deterrence where the threat of activation influences others.
  • Manifest Power: Active and deployed.
• In practice, different types of power are rarely isolated and are instead blended into cohesive political strategies.

Force: Physical Manifestations of Power

• Force is the exercise of power through physical means, ranging from nonviolent obstruction to extreme violence.
• Examples of Force include:
  • Physical violence: Assault, assassination, or war.
  • Physical obstruction: Blockades, barricades, and boycotts.
  • Resource sabotage: Physical damage to infrastructure or machinery.
• Historical and Modern Contexts of Violent Force:
  • The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since $1998$ has resulted in an estimated $5 \times 10^6$ deaths, identifying it as the deadliest conflict since World War II.
  • Strategic assassinations, such as the assassination of former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza in September $1980$ by the Argentinian Revolutionary Workers’ Party (PRT), represent calculated displays of force.
  • In June $2009$, following the disputed election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian state arrested over $400$ protesters and killed at least $10$, including Neda Soltan, an student whose death became a global symbol of resistance.
• Nonviolent Force as a Political Strategy:
  • Proponents like Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, and Dolores Huerta argued for the legitimacy of nonviolent force.
  • King’s criteria for legitimate force: nonviolent, used only after failed negotiations, preceded by self-scrutiny of motives, and aimed specifically at discriminatory laws.
  • Henry Brown used nonviolent force in $1849$ to gain liberation by mailing himself in a crate from Virginia to Pennsylvania, a journey of over $300\,\text{miles}$ and $24\,\text{hours}$.

Creative and Strategic Uses of Force Case Studies

• Case Study 1: The Woodlawn neighborhood organization pressured the city of Chicago by threatening to have members occupy all toilet stalls at O’Hare International Airport, physically denying access to facilities.
• Case Study 2: The "Army of God" book details methods to disable abortion clinics, such as using superglue in locks, drilling holes in roofs to cause leaks, or dumping manure to block access.
• Case Study 3: The manual Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching suggests disabling logging vehicles by putting rice in radiators or water in gas tanks.
• Case Study 4: "Olympics Out of Cobb" forced the relocation of Olympic events from Cobb County to Athens, Georgia, in $1996$ by organizing car caravans to drive at the minimum legal speed of $40\,\text{mph}$, threatening to cripple regional transportation.
• Case Study 5: "Buy Nothing Day" (observed in North America on November $27$ in $2010$) uses the physical removal of currency from the market to critique consumerism.

Persuasion and Manipulation: Nonphysical Power

• Persuasion is the use of nonphysical power where the agent explicitly communicates intentions, and the recipient consents to alter their behavior based on that communication.
• Notable examples of Persuasion:
  • The Federalist Papers: Essays by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay that convinced New York to ratify the Constitution.
  • Jacob Riis’s How the Other Half Lives ($1890$): Photos and text that shifted public attitudes toward the lives of the poor.
  • Shirin Ebadi: A Nobel Peace Prize-winning Iranian lawyer who persuaded citizens to toss white flowers in the streets to protest legal injustices against children, such as the case of Arian Golshani.
• Manipulation is nonphysical power where the agent conceals the aims and motives behind the exercise of power.
• Dynamics of Manipulation:
  • The Richard Nixon administration managed Gallup and Harris polling results by previewing data, writing specific questions to produce flattering results, and "burying" unfavorable data at the end of press releases.
  • The Reagan White House used manipulation by leaking critical articles about Senate Budget Committee Chair Pete Domenici to silence his opposition to the budget.
  • Manipulative techniques can include subtle psychological cues, such as using rhyming statements (e.g., "woes unite foes") or specific fonts to increase the perceived truth of a statement without the subject's awareness.
• Systematic Manipulation: Some groups argue manipulation persists through institutional culture, such as the use of "Pumsy the Dragon" or "King and King" books in schools, which critics claim subtly challenge traditional values.

Exchange: Incentive-Based Power

• Exchange involves providing an incentive or reward in return for compliance with a wish or policy.
• Domestic Examples: The "Cash for Clunkers" law ($2009$) incentivized citizens to trade in fuel-inefficient vehicles for rebates.
• International Examples:
  • The UN provided cash to Afghan poppy farmers to transition to legal crops.
  • In $2007$, the U.S. provided roughly $1 \times 10^9\,\text{dollars}$ annually to Pakistan in exchange for counterterrorism efforts.
  • In $2010$, U.S. Marines in Helmand Province provided cash for mosque repairs to incentivize local villagers to distance themselves from the Taliban.
• Logrolling: A legislative practice where representatives trade votes on separate bills to achieve mutual policy goals.
• Ethical Dilemma (Noxubee County, MS): A dispute where a poor, majority African-American county had to weigh the benefits of jobs from a toxic waste facility (exchange) against potential health risks. The NAACP supported the facility for economic growth, while others viewed it as environmental racism.

States: Structure and Development

• A state is an organization claiming ultimate authority for rule-making, extraction (revenues), and security within a specific territory.
• Structural Models of States:
  • Unitary States: Power is concentrated at the national level (e.g., France, China, Japan, UK).
  • Federal States: Power is divided between national, state, and local levels (e.g., United States, India, Brazil, Mexico).
  • Confederal States: Power is decentralized and held primarily by local offices; found in the U.S. under the Articles of Confederation ($1781$ to $1788$).
• States are dynamic and subject to evolution:
  • Turkey transitioned from the Ottoman Empire (sultanate) to a republic.
  • Germany evolved from an empire to a democracy, to a Nazi regime, to a divided state, and then back to a unified democracy, all in just over $100\,\text{years}$.
• Expansion and Extraction: The U.S. grew from $13$ to $50$ states and its spending increased significantly; by the $1930s$, the state was spending approximately $1 \times 10^6\,\text{dollars}$ per hour.

Rivals to State Sovereignty

• Sovereignty is the actual capability of a state to carry out its tasks, while Legitimacy is the belief by citizens that the state’s power is appropriate.
• Multinational Corporations (MNCs): International businesses with assets exceeding the wealth of some countries. They can bypass state authority by relocating jobs to places with lower standards, such as Wal-Mart moving jobs to Bangladesh where workers earn less than $30\,\text{dollars}$ per month for $60$-hour weeks.
• Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs): Voluntary groups like the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and Greenpeace. They influence policy by pressuring MNCs or publicizing human rights abuses that states attempt to hide.
• Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs): Organizations consisting of state members, such as the UN and NATO. The World Health Organization (WHO), for example, assists states in tracking diseases like Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS.
• State Decline Factors: James Rosenau suggests five forces threaten state existence:
  • Technological development enhancing cross-border interactions.
  • Global problems (terrorism, global warming) penetrating borders.
  • Citizens looking to non-state entities for guidance.
  • Increased group resources within borders.
  • Increased citizen know-how to resist authority.

Nations and Nationalism

• A nation is a group with a sense of unity based on shared attributes such as language, religion, culture, or ethnicity (from the Latin natus, meaning birth).
• Relations between States and Nations:
  • Multinational States: States containing more than one nation (e.g., India, which has over $40$ language groups).
  • Nations without States: The French-Canadian nation in Quebec held referendums in $1980$ and $1995$ (failing by a slim margin of $50.56\%$ to $49.44\%$) to gain independence.
  • Nationalist Impact: The disintegration of Yugoslavia led to the creation of over $20$ new states as Serbs ($36\%$ of the population) and Croats ($20\%$) sought separate sovereignty, resulting in $200,000$ deaths.
• Unique National Identities:
  • The Deaf Nation: Advocates argue they represent a nation based on a common language (sign language) and shared customs, such as a preference for intragroup marriage.
  • Strategic Polarization: In Burundi, Belgian colonial policy created artificial divisions between Tutsis and Hutus—who previously shared customs and intermarried—leading to sustained ethnic violence and political instability.

Evaluative Perspectives on Power and States

• Failed States: A state that lacks sovereignty (the ability to maintain order) is termed a failed state (e.g., situations in Yemen or Iraq) and can become a base for terrorist groups.
• Cultural Impacts: Robert Putnam and Ronald Inglehart suggest culture shapes state policy. Inglehart notes a shift from materialist values (economic security) to postmaterialist values (self-expression and environment) in prosperous nations.
• The Technological Individual: Modern individuals have unprecedented autonomy due to technology (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube); with $5 \times 10^9 \text{ to } 10 \times 10^9$ daily phone calls and over $1.5 \times 10^9$ radios globally, state borders are increasingly porous.