Samenvatting per lecture van het vak Political Dimension of Europe + de antwoorden op de vragen van de bijbehorende artikelen: What Democracy Is…and Is Not, Did History End? Assessing the Fukuyama Thesis, Democracy and Multiculturalism, The “Newest” Separation of Powers: Semipresidentialism.
The Political Dimension of
Europe
Summary per lecture + Article questions
Lecture 1
Politics is about:
Conflicts and cooperation Different opinions
The public sphere of the state Representativity
Pursuit and exercise of power Distribution of resources
A state has:
Geographic territory, internationally recognized boundaries
Identifiable population
Recognized government (=leadership that runs the state)
Meaning the state has sovereignty: The ability to act within a territory,
independently from internal or external rivals.
What the state does:
Protecting its territory and the population within it.
Max Weber: "monopoly of legitimate violence"
Providing collective goods, having institutions that help society function.
States differ based on:
Territorial Organization
Unitary: all the powers of government are vested in the central
government.
Federal: the powers of government are divided between the center and
the units.
Strength (what makes a state strong or weak)
Size
Strength of the economy
Military might
, Legitimacy: “right to rule” - consent to rule on the part of the people !
Legitimacy / right to rule is rooted in Max Weber's categorization:
Traditional authority: kings/queens etc.
Charismatic authority: Personality of ruler
Rational-legal authority: System of collectively agreed rules
Pros of the state:
The embodiment of the common goods (social democrats)
A neutral arbiter (liberals)
The results of society's need for authority and discipline (conservatives)
Cons of the state:
A useless and immoral limitation of individual freedom (anarchists)
An instrument of oppression (Marxists)
An instrument of male power (feminists)
Lecture 2
Power: The ability to achieve a desired outcome to make others do what they
would otherwise not do.
There are three faces of power:
1. Decision making
2. Agenda setting
3. Thought control
High individual liberty, High state power,
Low state power Low individual liberty
The state is controlled by:
Democratic regimes representative elections
Authoritarian regimes one person or/and a small group of people, absence
of fair elections
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