Political Science 1020E Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Benevolent Dictatorship, Hearing Loss, Equal Opportunity
9 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Poli Sci Midterm Review
What is politics?
Elements of Politics
- Social
- Process
- Conflict
- Binding decisions
- Enforced
Social process or activity where individuals & groups with conflicting ideas reach binding
decisions.
What is the state?
- Territorial community
- Centralized governing authority
- Sovereignty, including monopoly of legitimate violence
Human community that claims a monopoly of legitimate force.
Aristotle
2 main Questions
1) Who rules?
2) In whose interests?
6 Types of Government
Power
Currency of politics
- The ability to produce results
- Ifluee others’ ehaiour
- Can take several forms
Authority
Legitimate Power
- The right to command
- The right to punish those who disobey
- Is state authority justified?
o Ex. Death penalty
Hobbes
The State of Nature
- Why do we need a state?
- Thought experiment
o Ex. Imagine what life would be like without political authority
Claim: The worst scenario possible is having no state protection.
- Powerful state is needed to avoid disastrous interpersonal conflict
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- Main premise: human nature
3 Reasons to Attack
1) Competition – Attack for Gain
2) Lack of Trust – Attack for Safety
3) Glory – Attack for Reputation
Laws of Nature
1) Seek peace, if you can get it
2) Lay down natural right, if others do too
3) Perform your covenants
Locke
Why We Need the State: Inconveniences
- Problem: administration of justice
- Conflict about the law of nature
o What is it?
o What does it require?
- Some lack power to enforce the law of nature
State of Nature
- A state of peace
- Equality
o Morally equal
o Same natural rights to life, liberty & property
- Law of Nature
o Moral la, God’s la
o Everyone should be preserved as much as may be
- Natural liberty
o We all have a right to life = a duty to not kill anyone else
Rousseau
Human Nature
- Desire for self-preservation
- Pity or compassion for the suffering of others
How Change Happens in the State of Nature
- Free will & the capacity for self-improvement
- Tool-making
o Respond to scarcity by innovation
- Cooperation
- Leisure/Free time
Development of Civilization: Gradual Decline
- Introduced the law, an impartial source of justice
- Private property came along with the invention of the state
Not doing the same thing as Locke & Hobbes
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Social process or activity where individuals & groups with conflicting ideas reach binding decisions. Human community that claims a monopoly of legitimate force. The right to punish those who disobey. Imagine what life would be like without political authority. Claim: the worst scenario possible is having no state protection. Powerful state is needed to avoid disastrous interpersonal conflict. 3 reasons to attack: competition attack for gain, lack of trust attack for safety, glory attack for reputation. Laws of nature: seek peace, if you can get it, lay down natural right, if others do too, perform your covenants. Some lack power to enforce the law of nature. Equality: morally equal, same natural rights to life, liberty & property. Law of nature: moral la(cid:449), god"s la(cid:449, everyone should be preserved as much as may be. Natural liberty: we all have a right to life = a duty to not kill anyone else. Pity or compassion for the suffering of others.
