POLI 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: False Consciousness, Liberal Democracy, Religious Text
Document Summary
Lecture 4 the state: power, authority, and sovereignty. Power: origin: pouvoir = to be able, three definitions. Ability to convince others to do something (soft power) e. g. convince other states to sign an agreement. Ability to force others to do something (hard power) e. g. coercion military threats: state power. Power exerting within the states or outside of them. Different modern theories of state power: conservative power. Power of state is necessary to order in anarchic world. Ir realists believe hard power defines everything: liberal view. Power of state is dangerous: to be kept in check by rights of citizen and constitution. Ir liberals soft power is everything: marxist view of power. Power of state is illusionary; real power exists in economic realm and it is oppressive. Revolution is necessary to overturn economic system: all three modern theories see power as a capacity in which can be used against citizens in a coercive or repressive manner.
