POL S 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Mind Control
Political Science
8/31:
What is Power?
-Manifest Power: easy to observe operating
1. Immediate coercion, force of threat
eg: Mugger holds gun to civilian’s head
2. Winners and Losers in an openly contested public issue
eg: Workers go on strike demanding higher pay, management fires all of
them and hire new workers (Winners: management, Losers: workers)
-Implicit Power: 3 different kinds, harder to observe or prove
1. Control through legitimate authority
eg: waiting at a red light even when no cops are around
paying your taxes
2. Control of public agenda: control of what is important
a) Framing or publicizing an issue (News on TV)
b) power through anticipated reaction (presidential candidates don't
discuss opinion on gun control because they know it will lose them votes)
3. Control when the less powerful internalize what others say or want, even when
it isn't in their own interests
eg: child soldiers internalized ideas military men put in their head and now
they believe it. Almost a form of brainwashing
Politics
1. Is about “who gets what, when, and how?” (distribution)
2. is when you have people who are making a common decision and those who are exercising
power over others
*common decision is something everyone is going to have to live by, it is not always agreed on*
Review: Politics has to do with power and common decision
Politics is small and large scale (family politics and government politics)
A decision to do nothing is still a political decision
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