Politics Flashcards
One of the most important concepts of politics is power. We will talk about how individuals, groups, and organizations use power. Power affects how resources are distributed, how countries interact, whether peace or war prevails, and how groups and individuals pursue their interests; that is, power affects the myriad of topics studied by political scientists.
Power is the ability to influence an outcome to achieve an objective or the ability to influence someone to act in a way contrary to the way he or she would choose to act. Power involves the exercise of volition (262). Volition means the power over your will/choice. You buy this book of your own volition (your own will), no one forces you to buy this book. Sometimes, you don’t have the power over your own volition or you cannot exercise your own volition. Something or someone has influenced you to act against your own volition. You compromised your power or you were being controlled. Power over someone else involves altering his or her volition (will). Power can be latent (263) or manifest (264). Latent power are inactive. Manifest power is active and clear. A country’s large supply of weapons may be enough to preclude (265) aggression by its enemies.
latent: inactive not clear
manifest: active, clear
preclude (aggression): stop
Latent power- hidden, inactive
Manifest power - active, visible
Why does not China attack the US? Because it is aware of US latent power (hidden power). If China were to attack the US, the US’s power will manifest itself. There are 4 types of power.
- Force - physical means.
- Persuasion - Using logic, emotions, credibility
- Manipulation - control and play with your thought
- Exchange - power through incentives
FORCE - when you were a child, your parents can force you to do something or you will get hit.
PERSUASION - When you get older a little bit, forcing you to do something does not seem effective as it was before, your parents PERSUADE you not to smoke or to do good things to people around. Their logic is strong. They have the power.
MANIPULATION - The media and politicians and even some criminals will MANIPULATE you to get what they want. Multilevel marketing is a prime example. You decided to go to their seminar so they can brainwash/manipulate you to work for them. The media can also make you believe in something. The politicians can also manipulate you to like them or their policies.
EXCHANGE - Your boss gives you your salary and you are willing to work for them. You have money? Then you have power. If a government wishes to steer (266) its citizens toward buying fuel-efficient cars and offers them a monetary incentive to do so, and if citizens respond favourably to this incentive and act as the government had hoped, exchange has occurred
If you are persuaded, you feel it; if you are manipulated, you do not feel it because you do not know anything has happened. The implication is disturbing: How can you resist something if you do not know it exists? Politicians are so adept (267) at this power that members of some professions, most notably journalism, have outlined steps for trying to identify manipulation efforts when they are occurring to prevent being “overpowered” by them.
steer (toward): guide, control, direct toward
adept (at): very good/skillful at
Now let’s shift the focus to an analysis of political ideologies. Liberalism, conservatism, socialism, fascism, feminism, and environmentalism are examples of political ideologies. Each ideology draws on the history of political theory and seeks to apply the lessons of this history to the present.
LIBERALISM (268) - There are two types, which are Classical Liberalism and Modern Liberalism.
According to Classical Liberalism, each person is born equally free and equally in possession of certain natural rights. The individual is rational and capable of making his or her own decisions; Economic freedom (individual freedom to make economic choices) is more important than economic equality.
Libertarians favor strict limits on state action. For example, the Libertarian Party of the United States supports the following policies:
- Prohibition of censorship of books and movies
- Support for gun ownership
- Support for abortion rights
- Support for gay rights.
Each of these policies, the Libertarian Party argues, would return power to individuals and take it away from government. Smoking marijuana, watching certain movies, owning firearms, and other actions should not be forced on anyone, but neither should they be denied as choices to naturally free, rational individuals.
In the US, Republican Party calls itself conservative (right-wing), upholding traditional values or classical liberalism. The individual should live as free from government intervention as possible.
In contrast to the Republican Party, recent platforms of the Democratic Party (right-wing) reflect many ideas of modern liberal ideology. According to the Modern Liberalism, government intervention into individual and social life is sometimes necessary to prevent some individuals from denying freedom to others. Economic inequality is not considered favorable as it is a condition likely to undermine the welfare of those who have lower incomes and thus to erode their chances of being free.
CONSERVATISM (269). There are two types of Conservatism, which are Classical Liberal Conservatism (aka. Classical liberalism) and Traditional Conservatism.
Traditional conservatism believes that because of the profound human tendency toward irrational behavior, humans need guidance and direction from traditional authorities for society to enjoy peace and stability. Traditional authorities should pass on long-standing moral teachings through the family, religious institutions, and governmental laws. Compliance with traditional morality is more important than individual liberty; in other words, people should not have the freedom to violate moral precepts.
To put it simply, Liberalism asserts that people are rational and can think for themselves (government should protect human rights). Conservatism asserts that individual freedom is not always good. We rather follow guidance and direction of morality (government should take care of human needs).
Civil institutions should teach traditional morality, according to conservatism. Civil institutions are nongovernment organizations within society. Examples include families and religious institutions. Conservatism reasons that civil institutions prepare individuals to live peacefully and orderly. When civil institutions are operating in this manner, society functions smoothly, without the violence and disruption caused by upheavals (270).
SOCIALISM - Marxism–Leninism Teaches that society needs a centralized party and does not need multiparty competition through peaceful, lawful political participation. Many opponents see socialism as authoritarian (271). The Social Democratic Party in Finland or Denmark supports democracy as well as economic policies designed to improve the social and economic positions of workers. The party rejects communism (Marxism–Leninism) in favor of free elections.
Liberal
- Classical liberalism: Limited government, more freedom
- Modern liberalism: Government can help improve real freedom
Conservative
- Traditional conservatism: people need principles and guidance. Freedom can lead to irrational behaviors.
Socialist
- Marxism-leninism: One party controls everything
upheaval: a violence/disruption
authoritarian (system): imposing strict rules at the expense of personal freedom
Those are political ideologies. Political ideology is the foundation of a political system. There are many different forms of political systems
- Anarchism (272) - “no government”. Anarchism says NO to the existence of authority or government.
- Democracy (273) - “One person one vote”. Democracy is also known as “government by the people”. If you’re living in a democratic nation, you can vote for your leader and decisions and your vote will be taken into account. Unfortunately, this is not the case in some countries where the all decisions are made by the elite (274)
- Meritocracy (275) - is a merit-based (276) system, which means power should be given to those who have the ability and talent. Any advancement is based on performance or achievement. At least, it sounds very fair and square.
- Monarchy (277) - is a political system where the power is hold by a royal family. Vietnam used to have a monarchy government system. These days, monarchy appears to be something very old-fashioned like in Chinese movies. We, instead, have what it’s called constitutional monarchy, in which the governing power of the royal family is restricted by a constitution. The UK or Canada have a constitutional monarchy where the power belongs to Prime Ministers and the Parliamentary.
- Presidential system - there is a president leading an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch.
- Parliamentary system - executive branch, in this case, is not separated from legislative one.
7 Dictatorship - North Korea is a prime example where the leader holds absolute power and can do whatever he or she wants. There is no democracy here. Dictatorships generally carry out propaganda to suppress the influence of opponents wanting to overthrow (278) the system
- Anarchism - no government
- Democracy - government of the people
- Meritocracy - merit-based
- Monarchy - old Chinese movies
- Presidential system - A president leads executive branch
- Parliamentary system Parliament leads both legislative and executive branch
- Dictatorship - North Korea
overthow (a system): use force to remove a government
In essence, we can rank countries having the from LEAST democracy (MOST dictatorship) to MOST democracy (LEAST dictatorship). The distinction is clear. Countries where the government belong to the people have the most democracy. People decide the direction and actions of the government. Countries where the government belong to one guy or one authoritative party have the highest dictatorship (people have no f*cking voice whatsoever).
Democracy vs. Dictatorship
In the US, politicians and policies can be influenced by corporations or special interests (279) through lobbying activities (280) by lobby groups. Lobbying is a way to get your voice heard by the government. It is of high controversy because lobbying activities are supposedly mostly beneficial for big corporations and big banks rather than for the public interest. Usually on TV or newspaper, you will hear people ranting politicians have been bought out by corporations through in the form of donation or lobbying. Many lobbyists are lawyers, and the persons they are trying to influence have the duty of writing laws.
Lobbying activities: to influence politicians or policies
You may ask how to refer to the government or some other related parties when it comes to politics.
- Lobbyists - people who represent the influence those who make laws.
- Legislators - people who make laws
- Regulatory agencies - govern different areas of human activity (IRS, FBI, CIA, SEC)
- State-own enterprises (crown corporations) corporations owned by the government.
- Private sector - include organizations run by private individuals or groups (Apple, Blackberry, Samsung) - they have a lot of power and can influence the government
- Senators - member of Senate
- Congressmen - member of Congress
- Governor - head of a State (executive role) Like president but for a state only.
- Too-big-too-fail banks - big banks in Wall street that get bailed out by the government. They are now donating tons of money to buy politicians like Hillary Clinton
- Big media corporations - fox news, MSNBC, CNN, CBS - are biased, corrupted media in the US that get involved in politics to deliver messages that are in favor of the parties they follow rather than merely delivering facts.
- Alternative media - Internet media is growing to give the public the facts and less biased information.
- Big unions - organizations of workers who have come together to protect the integrity of the labor trade between workers and corporations. - They are very powerful too.
These are some parties that constitute (281) the US politics. They constantly influence one another to get what they want. Washington DC used to be a poor area in the US. Now by getting a lot of money through donations and with the rise of lobbying activities, it’s so much richer than ever before.
All the parties are contributing to protect the integrity of the system while also undermine it.
All the parties are contributing to protect the integrity of the system while also undermine it.
constitute: be a part to complete
From time to time, you might hear the news mentions “deregulation”. Ok, so you already know what regulation is. Regulation is a set of rule maintained by the authority. Deregulation (282), on the other hand, is the process of removing or reducing regulations. Why do we have to remove regulations? Because many hold that regulations and the inefficiencies associated with them can slow down the economy. Deregulation can help spur (283) growth in economic activities.
Unlike Canada, the banking system in the US has been deregulated. Banks can do whatever they want, notably the illegal subprime mortgage activities causing the 2008 economic crash. That’s one of the downsides of deregulation. But overall, without the existence of regulations, businesses tend to do well and operate more efficiently.
Politics have its own pitfalls. Let’s learn some of the bad words associated with it.
- Corruption - Hillary Clinton gets millions of dollars in donations of special interests and big banks. Rather than serving the public, she will lean towards serving the banks.
- Embezzlement - misappropriation (284) of funds
- Kleptocracy (285) - leaders of a country use their political power STEAL the country’s resources. For example, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un. This practice is notorious in countries with high dictatorship (low democracy) since the power of the leader is unlimited.
- Money laundering - the practice of converting money from illegal activities (dirty money) into legitimate money (clean money).
- Police brutality (286) - Abuse of power by the police
- Electoral fraud (287) - illegal interference with the process of election affecting vote counts to influence the result.
- Nepotism (288) - very notorious in Vietnam. If you have relatives working on the top, even if you’re dumb, you can still get hired.
- Misinformation (289) - intentionally distributing misleading information to affect the outcome (Eg. of an election)
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Kickback (290) - is a bribery. Give money to the authority to achieve what you want. In a more academic language, you can say that there is a ‘collusion’ going on between two parties. Collusion (291) means that two parties are not independent anymore.
Because of the corruptions of the system, there have been many social movements (292) in an attempt influence a change in the system. Recently, there is a social movement called #DemocracySpring happening in Washington D.C. to influence change in democracy when people in Colorado is taken away their voting rights. Just to remind you, democracy means one person one vote, government by the people. In this example, DemocracySpring is trying to democratize (293) the system. Vietnam is clearly not a democratic nation. Votes are taken away from the public.
Social movements can be things like WikiLeaks, that functions as a journalistic organization to release secret information in attempt to promote transparency.
There are two kinds of social movements
- Innovative movement - movements that want to change the norms or values.
- Conservative movement - movements that want to preserve existing norms or values.
Deregulation - removing or reducing regulations to spur the economy
spur (the economy): boost, stimulate
