POLS 1150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Social Inequality, General Idea, Decision-Making
9 May 2016
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Document Summary
Politics is about organizing life and relationships, how humans govern themselves. Formation of political communities is often tied to a common territory. Institutions: groupings that have developed to attend to particular societal needs successful and economic development depends on the construction and maintenance of strong institutions eg. parliament, police and law of rule. Types of political order: democracy: governance requires the assent of all citizens through participation in the electoral process, articulation of views and direct or indirect representation in institutions of governance. Political order in which people choose their rulers: monarchy: a form of government by a single ruler who holds at least nominally absolute power, most are limited by another institution, but, absolute monarchies still exist (sometimes called absolutism). This means they have absolute political power, they are usually born into it. Tyranny: government by a single ruler who often exercises arbitrary power for his own benefit rather than that of the community.
