Lief Carter
Political Science
Politics defined:
Behavior which seeks to get other beings to do things that those others
would not, at least initially, freely choose to do for themselves.
Political resources:
Physical
force
status/prestige/legitimacy
information
tangible
wealth
The coercive transaction: Victimizer uses resources to take hostage from victim. Victim ransoms hostage, thus doing what victimizer wants done. Sometimes called “the extortionate transaction.”
Alliance formation: Both victimizers and potential victims form alliances to increase their power position in the coercive transaction. Law is the expression of the government’s willingness to form an alliance with one side or another.
Political influence: The use of rhetorical and other styles to get people to change their preferences so that, without direct engagement in coercive transactions, the “rhetor” converts others into doing what he/she wants. Less potentially lethal than coercion.
Courtly style
Republican
style
Realist style
Bureaucratic
style
Playful
(gaming) style
Liberal democracy: Liberalism (at least since Locke) can best be understood not as a coherent formal political philosophy or theory but as a series of rhetorical and coercive practices and institutions that try to minimize warfare between/among human groups and tribes. The emergence of Deweyan pragmatism in the United States, represented these days by, e.g., Richard Rorty, is a particularly encouraging liberal move.