POLS 1101 1st Edition Lecture 1 Outline of Current Lecture I Questions to reflect over II Principal Assumption III Logic II IV What is Politics V Logic of American Politics VI The Importance of Institutional Design VII Constitutions and Governments VIII Power vs Authority IX Institutions are Durable X Logic of the Political System XI Problems with Collective Actions Current Lecture I II III IV Questions to Reflect over What good is politics in helping people solve their problems Do Institutions matter In a democracy when a majority agrees on a course of action how do the institutional arrangements really affect the majority s ability to do what it wants Are politicians the servants of the public as they say in their campaign ads or are they just self serving Why do we need them Principal Assumption Every political actor is rational o They always have more than once choice o But they always choose their preference o Their choices usually tend to reflect here economic situation religious values ethnic identity or some other valued interest Logic II When politicians conflict over different choices it usually is because of o Conflicting Interest o Conflicting Values o Conflicting beliefs o Conflicting ideas about how to allocate limited resources What is Politics V VI VII VIII Politics is how people attempt to manage conflict o There are processes through which individuals and groups reach agreements on a course of common or collective action Politics is important o When it fails there is Anarchy Civil War Logic of American Politics Bargaining and Compromise is required The politicians know what they want but they must make sacrifices to reconcile if you are to agree to some common course of action The fundamental problem of government is that the Government is devised to represent and reconcile society s man Diverse preferences that are sown in the nature of man Madison The Importance of Institutional Design Political Institutions that are effective o Has a set of rules and procedures for reaching enforced collective agreements o Unstructured negotiation rarely yields a collective decision that everyone can accept An example would be Obama and Boehner trying to fix the fiscal cliff in 2011 and 2012 Institutional designs is a product of politics If we look forward to the future the Constitution is a product of political compromise Constitutions and Governments Constitutions o Establish a nations governing institutions o Is a set of rules and procedures that these institutions must and must not follow to reach and enforce collective agreements o Sometimes it is a highly formal document o Or it may be an informal understanding based on centuries of precedent and law Government o It consists of these institutions and the legally prescribed process for making and enforcing collective agreements It assumes various forms monarchy republic democracy theocracy or dictatorship Power Vs Authority Offices confer on their occupants specific authority and responsibility IX X XI o Rules and procedures prescribing how an institution transacts business and what authority relations will link offices together Authority the acknowledged right to make a particular decision Power Refers to an officeholder s actual influence with other officeholders and over the government s actions Institutions are durable They usually tend to be stable and resist chance because o Institutions persist beyond the tenure of officeholders who occupy them o The people who are affected by them make plans on the expectation that current arrangements will remain the status quo o Those who seek change typically cannot agree on alternatives Logic of the Political System Our institutions are embedded with certain core values o Such as popular rule o Our institutions are balanced with equally fundamental rules that the government must protect certain individual liberties even when a majority insists otherwise Logic embedded in our institutions o Members of a community usually engage with another community politically so they can identify and pursue common goals Problems with collective action In every instance of collective action either nations particularly democracies will face challenges o Comparing preferences o Agreeing on a course of action that is preferable to doing nothing o Implementing and enforcing the collective choice
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