POLS 110 Study Guide - Final Guide: Amartya Sen, Charismatic Authority, Corporatism

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Political Studies
• Course: POLS 110
• Professor: Maggie Mac Donald

Document Summary

Study of politics becomes the study of which values dominate, who makes decisions and on what grounds those decisions can be justified. The personal is the political, everything can be political. Politics should encompass the entire sphere of the social (colin hay) Globalization: an ongoing movement towards economic, political and social/cultural independence that had reduced the autonomy of sovereign states, as a challenge to state power. Definitions of the political, how we study it. Emphasis on institutions (state, government), distribution of resources, distribution of power and common concerns. Its political if its susceptible to change (through actions, processes, developments) and involves communication and value. What we see as political is constantly changing. Positivism: theory that believes it is possible to generate empirical statements without any evaluative or normative connotations, belief that only statements that are true by definition are meaningful. Normative: through the lens of what should happen. Empirical: based on what we can observe and measure.