Politics is the interaction of power and ethics. Any time two or more people interact, politics occurs. Power can be exercised through the use of violence, the hiding of information, the use of ideology to shape peoples behaviors, and the effect of reputation. A view of leadership is that it is better for leaders to be feared than hated. Power is a scarce resource. Power used is power lost. Human nature is the starting point of all political philosophy. In the state of nature, life is nasty, brutish, and short. A more optimistic view of human nature is that people will work in collectives without the need for individual profit. There has not been a way developed to scientifically define human nature. Constitutions are the basic documents that define the structure of a state, purposes of a state, and the rights of citizens. Popular sovereignty means that the citizens are the state. Trustee role means that an elected representative should work for what they think is in the best interest of the citizens. Delegate role means that an elected representative should work for what the citizens think is their best interest. Propaganda is a form of communication that supports an idea by using emotional language, emphasizing certain ideas, and suppressing other ideas. Scapegoating is the practice of blaming a particular group of people for the problems of an entire society. Ethnic minorities or other countries are often used as scapegoats. Science is the dominant idea of how to decide upon facts in modern societies. Science assumes that direct observation of nature and testing of theory can lead to the discovery of facts. Science often comes into conflict with religion. Paradigms are dominant scientific communities that accept the same theories. When observations increasingly disprove paradigms, a crisis occurs and a paradigm shift then occurs.
Types of Power
The scope and bias of conflict is important in determining the outcome of a conflict. Different factions may or may not be involved in a conflict. Private interests usually want to keep conflicts, such as environmental regulation, worker compensation, and worker safety, private. Those who are dissatisfied with their treatment in private, such as workers or women, may want a socialization of conflict by having the government regulate the conflict. By decentralizing conflict, such as making it a matter of regional government, some factions may benefit. Some factions may have to work for their rights in many different places if a conflict is decentralized. Totalitarianism is a form of government that claims a monopoly upon truth and does not allow any open argument. Severe violence may be used to maintain the dominant group in power. Sultanism is a form of government that does not rely upon tradition, ideas, or popular support for its legitimacy. It is a form of government that operates only by giving out punishments and rewards. This form of government has been common in states where human rights violations and poverty are at high levels. Because of the brutality and corruption of sultanistic governments, military governments may come to power in an attempt to reduce brutality and corruption. However, military governments often end up engaging in the same brutality and corruption because they lack popular support. Traditional society consists of small scale communities, personal relationships, inheritance of status, and religious thinking being dominant. Modern society consists of large scale communities, institutions, money relationships, achievement of status, and scientific thinking being dominant.
Democracy consists of seven elements. Free and fair elections, freedom of expression, freedom of association, civilian control of police and military forces, separation of executive, judicial, and legislative powers, secular government, and equal application of the law. Free and fair elections are necessary to give the people control of the government that serves them. Freedom of expression and freedom of association are important for a democratic society composed of many interest groups to control the government. Civilian control of police and military forces is necessary to prevent abuse of their power. Separation of powers helps the legislative, executive, and judicial branches perform their functions with out one branch dominating another. This helps prevent an individual from gaining too much power or breaking the law. Secular government promotes law based upon scientific methods which encourages open debate in lawmaking. Equal application of law promotes justice as fairness and it helps to prevent ethnic, class, and gender conflict. Social contract is a concept that gives citizens control of a state. A contract exists between citizens and the state that defines the rights and responsibilities of the citizens and the state. Because of the need for constant compromise in democracy people may be dissatisfied with government most of the time. Democracy can be seen as a partial solution to difficult problems.
Views of Democracy
Democracy produces more wealth for individuals and countries. Democracies have not had large scale famines. Democracies do not go to war with each other. This is debated depending upon how war and democracy is defined. Wealthy elites tend to have much of the power in a democracy. The costs of election campaigns may mean that the interests of most citizens are not represented. The private ownership of mass media may cause censorship of ideas that wealthy elites object to. Elections can be limited by government to give the appearance of free choice but choices are actually restricted. Peaceful transfer of power is a cultural value that is difficult to promote and takes much time to become accepted. Democracy may increase ethnic conflict by allowing ethnic groups to assert their identities and promote a separate state. The short period of time between elections can cause policies that have only short term benefits. Both majority oppression and minority oppression may occur in democracies. Elites can stay in power for long periods of time preventing change even with elections. Citizens may not have the time and skill to make well informed voting decisions.
Non violence is a form of resistance to government that uses peaceful demonstration and appeals to peoples sense of justice. Mahatma Ghandi used non violent resistance to help India end British rule and Martin Luther King used these principles to advance the rights of African Americans. Utilitarianism is a philosophy that advocates the greatest good for the greatest number. Ends are more important than means. Duty is a philosophy the advocates universal rules for conduct. The means are what is most important. Gender is a way of defining masculinity and femininity. Debates exist regarding the nature basis of gender versus the learning basis of gender. Privacy is a legal concept that protects things from governmental power. The private residence and the private company are given protections against governmental power. Feminists criticize privacy for protecting male privilege and promoting violence against women. Air, water, and soil pollution created by industries makes governmental regulation of industrial pollution an issue.
Free market economics means that government regulation of the economy is absent or minimal. Some argue that this brings about the greatest good for the greatest number through efficiency, competition, and profit generation. Others criticize the free market for violating workers rights, degrading the environment, oppressing women, and oppressing ethnic minorities. Interest rates determine the cost of money and can be used by governments to control economic growth, inflation, deflation, and employment. Rational choice theory states that people are self interest maximizing rational actors. People will not cooperate in groups without incentives being provided. This theory has been criticized for not being able to define rational, not taking into account how much choice people may have, what people consider to be maximizing, and greed as a part of culture, not nature.
Socialism is an idea that advocates state control of economic activities to democratize the workplace. Class conflict is a constant throughout history and explains the cause of all political events according to socialists. Alienation occurs in capitalism between workers and their products, their families, and themselves. This may be because of the lack of power that workers have and profit seeking creating conflict between people. Socialists criticize privacy for interfering with the rights of workers. Inequality in education can be seen in the funding of schools, the ability of parents to support their children’s education, and the ability of parents to communicate with schools.
Liberalism is a theory of international relations that focuses upon cooperation, the creative aspects of human nature, and the use of transnational institutions. War, environment, disease, organized crime, and terrorism go over boundaries. Liberals promote human rights and democracy as ways of bringing about peace and prosperity. Absolute gains refer to gains that are from cooperation by all states involved. Cooperation between states may be in their self interest. Modern communications and transportation technologies have increased the complexity of interdependence. Norms are standards of behavior that states tend to follow. Social construction refers to things like states that are not a part of nature. These things come from human thought and can be changed. Constructivists see international relations as being made up primarily of a distribution of ideas. According to constructivists, non violent change may be difficult but it is possible. Human rights are stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human rights include prohibition of torture, prohibition of the death penalty, and freedom of expression. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes both individual and collective rights which can make it difficult to enforce. Institutions help cooperation between states. Some examples are the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the International Telecommunications Union. Institutions also include non governmental organizations such as the international Red Cross and Amnesty International.
The United Nations is an institution that has the goals of keeping the peace, enforcing human rights, and assisting in economic development. Critics say that the U.N. is inefficient, too costly, and a threat to the security of individual states. It is dependent upon the cooperation of member states to accomplish its goals. Peacekeeping is performed by the United Nations to end warfare and prevent it from occurring. A treaty is a written agreement that attempts to prevent and end conflict. The U.N. will send peacekeeping forces to keep factions apart and monitor the enforcement of the treaty. One of the problems of U.N. peacekeeping is the failure to implement the military staff committee that is in Chapter 7 of the U. N. charter. Another problem with peacekeeping is the five permanent members of the security council having a veto of any action. These members are China, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and the United States. These members have been criticized for not being representative of the current world power distribution. Peacemaking is a more costly action where the U.N. ends fighting with overwhelming force without a treaty between factions. Peacemaking also includes food, water, housing, law enforcement, health care, and road maintenance.
Realism is a theory of international relations that focuses on state action, the destructive aspects of human nature, and the need to balance power to have peace. The strong do what they will, the weak do what they must. War has been almost constant and inevitable in the history of states. Realists tend to focus on the economic material causes of war. States are viewed as black boxes. What goes on inside of states is not as important as the external policies and capabilities of states. Human rights and democracy are considered to be secondary to security by realists. Alliances are formed to balance power so that military action can not be taken without risking a high cost in money and lives. This is known as deterrence. Relative gains refer to the gains that states make economically or militarily in comparison to other states. Sovereignty refers to the ideas of equality and non interference among states. The ideas of equality and non interference have rarely been achieved. Realists emphasize the inequality of states in their ability to provide for their security. Hegemony is the overwhelming power of one state that dominates the world. Hegemons have tended to rise and fall such as the Ottoman, French, and British empires. Anarchy is a central characteristic of the international system. There is no world government and states have to provide for their own security. Nation State is the ideal of one ethnic group living in a state. This ideal has not been accomplished. The ethnic part of the nation state sometimes creates movements to expand the territory of a nation state or a movement to create another nation state. Professors and government employees such as Henry Kissinger and Condoleeza Rice are realists who have influenced U.S. foreign policy.
Causes of War
Ethnic conflict and economics often are tied together. In most states, one ethnic group has more wealth than others. This creates tensions that sometimes turn into violence. These tensions are often increased due to the presence of valuable natural resources such as oil. Ethnic conflict is also caused by issues of language and religion. Clash of civilizations refers to the tendency of states to form alliances according to ethnic similarities. Civilizations are defined as Latin American, Asian, European, African, and Islamic. Wars occur where the boundaries of civilizations meet. Economic conflict may be caused by capitalism searching for new markets to continue increasing profits. Ideas such as Capitalism, Communism, and fundamentalist religion can be a source of conflict because of their different values. Some feminists say that war is caused by masculinity which is dominance that uses violence to maintain dominance. Another view is that violence and dominance are in human genes and are influenced by testosterone levels. Sexual repression may cause violence because frustration may lead to violence. Security dilemma is the need for states to provide for their own security. Actions that states take to provide their own security create a threat to other states. Institutions have policies that cannot be effective and safe in every circumstance. Institutions may accidentally cause wars. Group think can occur when ideas are censored. People may censor ideas because they do not want to be viewed as outsiders and deal with the emotions of debate. People tend to find it difficult to admit to weaknesses in their ideas. Cultural differences in languages and rituals can be perceived incorrectly by states. People tend to act the way that they are treated. Individuals and elites may be given too much importance in perceptions of group conduct.
Philosophy of War
Deception is an important tactic in fighting wars. Deception can lead to a quicker victory with less killing. Spying is important to collect intelligence on what the enemy is doing. Accurate intelligence can lead to quicker victory and less killing. Winning without fighting may be done by using spying and deterrence. The will to fight may be more effective than the ability to kill and destroy. Just war is defined as war of self defense, preemptive attack in response to an immanent threat, or humanitarian intervention. What is self defense, immanent threat, and the need for humanitarian intervention are continually debated. Non combatant immunity is a rule that civilians should not be targeted in a war. It can be difficult to decide who are combatants and civilians when people without uniforms are supporting the fighting. Weapons of mass destruction kill large numbers of both combatants and civilians. Terrorism is the use of violence against both military and civilian targets to change the policies or boundaries of states. Depending upon a persons viewpoint, an individual may be a terrorist or a freedom fighter. War crimes are the targeting of civilians and using torture. Prosecution of war crimes does not always happen. There is no agreement among states on how to enforce war crime laws. Global death totals of wars are low when compared to car crashes, pedestrians hit by cars, or suicides.
Third world refers to states that have high levels of poverty, low literacy rates, short life spans, and high levels of corruption. The conditions of third world states have been explained by cultural resistance, European colonial practices, and unfair trade by the dominant states. Corruption is a problem in all states and it is especially bad in Third world states. Corruption is the use of government resources for private gain. The extent to which government employees should profit from public money is continually debated. Asian economic development has occurred rapidly and is known as export led development. Some East Asian states developed after 1945 by limiting imports, state investment in research, and exporting to foreign markets. Since 1945 European countries have increased their economic cooperation through the European Union. Transnational corporations operate across state borders and reduce state sovereignty. State laws about workers rights, environmental regulations, and taxation are affected by transnational corporations. Dependency theory states that there are core, semi periphery, and periphery states. Periphery states are unfairly used for their cheap labor and natural resources by the core. This theory says economic independence is needed for countries to develop. Food is distributed unequally inside of and between states. Wealthy states may fund their agricultural production which makes it too expensive for poor states to purchase. Wealthy states also tend to tax agricultural products from poor states heavily. This may make it more difficult for poor states to develop their economies. Industrial development requires an agricultural surplus so people can pursue other economic activities.
American Ideas
Conservatism is an idea in America that emphasizes limited government, free market economics, and personal responsibility. Government should be conducted at the most local level possible and states rights should be protected. Foreign policy should be conducted with national security being protected whether or not other countries agree with it. Social welfare is best handled by private and faith based charities. A large well funded military force should be maintained. The dominant Anglo culture should be reinforced and taught in the schools along with technical skills for an obedient work force. Your position in society is determined by individual skill, intelligence, and hard work. Conservatism is the primary ideology of the Republican party.
Liberalism is an ideology in America that emphasizes moderately sized government, regulated economics, and support for those who are victims of circumstances in a market economy. A balance between Federal, State, and Local governmental power is desirable. Military force should be adequate to defend immediate threats to the country. Peacekeeping and humanitarian missions may occur. The dominant Anglo culture should be questioned, multicultural understanding should be taught in schools. Your position in society is determined by individual skill, intelligence, hard work, and economic circumstances. Liberalism is the primary ideology of the Democratic party.
Socialism is an idea that is rarely supported in America. It emphasizes social justice over the size or cost of government. A strong central government is needed to properly regulate the economy and protect the rights of all citizens. A market economy is inherently unjust and must be democratized through state ownership of enterprises. Military force structure should only be adequate to defend immediate threats to the country and be used outside of the country only for peacekeeping and humanitarian intervention missions. Tolerance and critical thinking skills should be emphasized in schools. Ones position in capitalist society is determined by family status, geographical location, physical beauty, and luck.
The Constitution of America has been described as a bundle of compromises. It intentionally uses vague language in many sections, such as cruel and unusual punishment. Some critics have pointed out that the U.S. constitution has not been fully enforced. There are many areas such as race, class, gender, and freedom of expression that may not have been adequately protected. Critics also say that the constitution is set up to favor the wealthy through emphasis on individual rights and property rights while neglecting housing, education, and health care. The constitution is the ultimate law that all other laws are tested by in the Supreme Court. Some advocate following the writers intent while others argue for the need to adapt to changing circumstances. A critique of the constitution has been that it was formulated by elites, there was no democratic debate or voting on it. Federalism refers to the structure of American government where power is shared amongst the Federal, state, and local governments. There has been a general trend in American history towards greater central government power.
Institutions
There are two major parties in American politics. The conservative Republicans and the liberal Democrats. There has almost always been two parties in America. This can explained by the person who gets the most votes wins a district. A third party will have great difficulty in gaining enough votes to win a district. Courts interpret laws, decide the constitutionality of laws, determine guilt or innocence, and determine punishment. The president and governors sign bills into law, veto bills, and enforce the laws.
Legislatures in America consist of two chambers, with the exception of Minnesota which only has one. Legislatures debate and write laws that are sent to the president or governors to sign into law or veto. Once the president or a governor signs a bill into law, it is subject to judicial review to determine the constitutionality of the law. Constituents need assistance in dealing with various government agencies. Providing constituent service is a way for a representative to gain votes and helps keep government accountable to the people. Compromises and exchanging favors occur. This is called logrolling where groups of legislators trade votes on a bill for votes on another bill. Oversight is a function of legislative committees to ensure that programs are being carried out according to laws. This function can come into conflict with executive branch preferences and national security considerations. Implementation is the process of enforcing laws. This is often very difficult, time consuming, and costly in a democratic federal system. There are many decisions to be made and many interest groups involved in the process of implementation.
Race can determine education, income, health care, housing, and criminal justice. Racial minorities have been subject to harassment and murder committed by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, religious fundamentalists, and Nazis. Multiculturalism is an idea that promotes cultural tolerance and diversity. This has been criticized for accepting all cultures as equal, and ignoring the accomplishments of European American culture.
Education is funded and controlled mostly by state and local governments. The distribution of funds are often debated and can be unequal between school districts. Parts of education content are debated, such as ethnic identity, religion, sexuality, liberalism, and conservatism.
Housing
Urban renewal programs attempt to improve areas by removing old buildings, improving roads and utilities, and reducing taxes to attract private businesses. It has often targeted poor ethnic areas. This has had the effect of forcing poor minorities into other areas without solving the problems of racism and poverty. Housing is largely controlled by market forces in America. Middle and upper class citizens often oppose low income housing in their neighborhoods. Housing has been effected by the practices of redlining and block busting. Redlining is the practice of private companies refusing to do business in certain geographic areas. The banking, insurance, and investment businesses have used red lining. Block busting is the practice of real estate companies scaring Europeans out of areas as non Europeans move in. Real estate companies offer Europeans a lower price for their homes and then increase the price of homes for the other ethnic groups moving in.
Health care is provided in America primarily through private insurance. America has large private investment in medical technology, procedures, and training. This is an expensive system that a large portion of the population has difficulties affording. Governmental health care programs are limited but have slowly expanded over time. There is a shortage of medical professionals and costs continue to rise. The older population is increasing and new technologies are developing that keep people alive longer with the need for more medical care.
Immigration has been an important part of the evolution of America. At times, immigration has increased to several million per year and decreased to almost none per year. It was in the late twentieth century that most racial discrimination in immigration was stopped. There have been ongoing arguments concerning the numbers of immigrants that should be allowed, cultural impact, environmental impact, and levels of unemployment caused by immigrants.
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