Understand Politics
Page 1
Teach®
Yourself
Understand Politics
Peter Joyce
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First published in UK 1996 by Hodder Education, part of Hachette UK, 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH.
First published in US 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
This edition published 2010.
Previously published as Teach Yourself Politics
The Teach Yourself name is a registered trade mark of Hodder Headline.
Copyright © 1996, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2010 Peter Joyce
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Impression number
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Year
2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
Contents
Meet the author
Only got a minute?
Only got five minutes?
1 Key issues in the study of politics
Definition
Political culture
States and governments
The role of the state
Power, authority and legitimacy
The rule of law
Equality
2 Liberal democracy
Definition
Political systems
Accountability
Communist and totalitarian political systems
Electoral procedures and liberal democracies
Legislators and public opinion
Public involvement in policy making
Referendum
3 Political ideologies
Definition
Individualism and collectivism
Left-wing political ideologies
The centre and centre-left of the political spectrum
Right-wing political ideologies
4 Elections and electoral systems
The significance of elections
Non-voting
The mandate
Voting behaviour
Electoral systems
The first-past-the-post electoral system and its variants
Proportional representation
The first-past-the-post electoral system analysed
The strengths and weaknesses of proportional representation
5 Parties and party systems
Objectives and key characteristics
Determinants of party systems
The role of political parties
The decline of established parties?
The traditional functions of political parties
Political parties and social and economic change
The continued vitality of established political parties
6 Pressure groups
Definition
The role of pressure groups
Political parties and pressure groups
Classification of pressure groups
The activities of pressure groups
Pressure group influence
The strengths and weaknesses of pressure group activity
7 The media
The role of the media in a liberal democracy
Problems posed by the media
The media and the conduct of politics
The political influence of the media
Cross-media ownership
8 Constitutions
Definition
The role of a constitution
Codified constitutions as living documents
The United Kingdom’s uncodified constitution
Constitutional reform in the United Kingdom
9 The executive branch of government
The role of the executive branch
Relations within the executive branch
Cabinet government in the United Kingdom
The power of chief executives
The chief executive’s bureaucracy
Heads of state
10 The bureaucracy
The role of the bureaucracy
The ‘alternative’ machinery of government
The civil service as a ruling elite
Civil service influence over policy making
Political control of the bureaucracy
Reform of the civil service
Freedom of information and official secrecy
11 The legislative branch of government
The functions of legislatures
The operations of legislatures
Bicameral and unicameral legislatures
Functional representation
Changes affecting the power and authority of legislatures
The decline of legislatures?
12 The judiciary and law enforcement
The politics of law enforcement
The control and accountability of the police
The judicial system
Judicial interpretation
The politics of the judiciary
13 Sub-national government
Definition
Federalism
Confederation
Regionalism
Local government
Central control and local autonomy
Local government reform in Britain
14 The nation state in th
e modern world
Definition
Threats to external sovereignty
The end of sovereignty?
The European Union
EU–USA relationships
International terrorism
Taking it further
Index
To my wife, Julie, and my daughters, Emmeline and Eleanor
Credits
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Meet the author
Welcome to Understand Politics!
Politics is an extremely important subject: decisions made by politicians shape our everyday lives and public interest in recent national election campaigns in the USA and the UK show the interest that it continues to excite.
One problem that I encountered in teaching politics was the absence of an introductory text that imparted basic information to readers. Too often what are termed ‘introductory texts’ require a large store of existing knowledge.
So I was very pleased when, in 1996, Hodder approached me to write a basic introduction to politics. The result was Understand Politics. It is now in its fifth edition and has established itself as a useful guide to this intriguing subject.
As an introduction, the material presented here is selective. It concentrates on the institutions of government and the political systems operating in first world (or post-industrial) liberal democratic states. It seeks to provide the reader with an understanding of the operations of liberal democratic political systems and the differences that exist between them. The key issues which are discussed are supplemented by a range of examples drawn from a variety of relevant countries.
Whether you are an AS/A-level student, an undergraduate, or a general reader, I hope that this introduction to the study of politics will encourage you to pursue your investigations further. At the end of the book is a chapter-by-chapter list of further reading as a guide to your continuing studies.
Peter Joyce
1: Only got a minute?
Politics operates at every level of our daily lives. Decisions relating to the food we eat, the employment we seek, the leisure activities we undertake and the people with whom we choose to communicate may all be subject to political considerations.
So what is politics about? Essentially politics entails taking decisions in order to resolve the issues or problems with which we are confronted.
These decisions may be undertaken on the basis of an academic consideration of all available options that are before us or they may be affected by factors of a less rational nature, perhaps based upon our own individual biases or prejudices. When we are faced with a range of possible courses of action related to a particular decision, we may decide to adopt a ‘pick and mix’ approach whereby we select aspects drawn from a range of choices that are before us.
The important matter to bear in mind, however, is that there are usually alternative ways of resolving any specific issue on which we wish (or are perhaps required) to make a decision, and the resolution of competing courses of action is at the heart of the study of politics.
5: Only got five minutes?
Elections are the means through which all of us can play a part in political affairs. We are very familiar with elections at the present time. Much attention was devoted by the media to the general election that was held in the UK in May 2010 and before that considerable treatment was given to the American presidential contest in 2008 that witnessed the election of Barack Obama.
So what are elections all about? Many of the key decisions affecting our everyday lives are not taken by us personally but instead are made by others acting on our behalf.
In countries such as the UK and the USA (which have what we term as ‘liberal democratic political systems’), we elect representatives whom we authorize to take decisions on our behalf. We do this by voting for them when elections take place. Should we be unhappy with the actions that they undertake, we have the ability to remove them from office and replace them with a new set of representatives at a later set of elections.
Elections are thus key aspects of politics.
In the UK we elect representatives to parliament, to the devolved institutions of government in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and to local government. Citizens aged 18 and over possess the right to vote in these contests. There are a wide variety of systems that can be used to determine the outcome of elections, which range from the ‘first past the post’ system that is used in national elections held in the UK and USA, to various forms of proportional representation that are adopted in European countries.
Where do political parties fit into this? When choosing a representative, we usually vote for a person who is nominated by a political party.
A political party is an organization which seeks to achieve political power. It does so by putting forward candidates at election time in the hope enough of them will be elected to become the majority voice in the body for which elections are being held. In the UK the main political parties consist of the Labour and Conservative Parties and the Liberal Democrats. In the USA the main parties are the Democrats and the Republicans.
Political parties are based upon ideologies which guide their actions if they win an election and provide voters with a vision of society which each party aspires to create should they be successful in the contest. It is also common at election times for political parties to put forward statements which outline their policies regarding key issues which they will be required to tackle should they win the election. These are referred to as election manifestos (or the term ‘platforms’ is used in connection with American election contests). Individual candidates may supplement this information by individual statements which in the UK are typically in the form of leaflets that are put through our doors at election time.
Thus when we vote for a representative to take decisions on our behalf we tend to vote for a candidate who is the nominee of a party with an ideology and set of policies which we support. We do not necessarily agree with everything that is put forward by that party but on balance we agree with many things or we prefer the views of that party to those put forward by its opponents.
1
Key issues in the study of politics
In this chapter you will learn:
what is meant by the term ‘politics’
key terms associated with the study of politics
why similar systems of government operate differently.
Definition
We are all familiar with the term ‘politics’. It is encountered in the workplace, perhaps in the form of ‘office politics’. We talk of the ‘political environment’ which fashions the content of public policy. But what exactly is involved in the study of politics?
Human relationships are crucial to the study of politics. Human beings do not live in isolation. We live in communities. These may be small (such as a family) or large (such as a country). Politics embraces the study of the behaviour of individuals within a group context. The focus of its study is broad and includes issues such as inter-group relationships, the management of groups, the operations of their collective decision-making processes (especially the activities and operations of the state) and the implementation and enforcement of decisions. The regulation of conflict between individuals and groups is a particul ar focus of political analysis, to which the study of the concept of power and the manner in which it is exercised is central. The study of politics thus involves a wide range of complementary subject areas which include political theory, political history, government and public administration, policy analysis and international relations.
In the following sections we discuss a number of key issues that relate to the study of politics. The
se are usually referred to as ‘concepts’ and they provide us with an underpinning on which a more detailed examination of the political process in liberal democracies can be built.
Political culture
* * *
Insight
The term ‘political culture’ refers to an underlying set of values held by most people living in a particular country concerning political behaviour, one important aspect of which is the degree of trust which citizens have in their political leaders.
* * *
We expect to see a number of common features in a liberal democratic political system. These include institutions such as a chief executive, legislatures and courts, organizations such as political parties and pressure groups, processes such as elections and the possession by individual citizens of a range of personal freedoms. However, their composition, conduct, powers, relationships and operations differ from one country to another. Within a common framework, the workings of the political system in each liberal democracy are subject to wide variation. In France, for example, there is a wide degree of tolerance for conflict as a means of settling political disputes. In Sweden, however, the spirit of compromise tends to guide the actions of key participants to the political process. In the United Kingdom there is a tradition of evolutionary rather than revolutionary change.
* * *
Alternative views concerning political culture
Liberal theorists suggest that a country’s political culture is fashioned by its unique historical development and is transmitted across the generations by a process termed ‘political socialization’. Agencies such as the family, schools, the media and political parties are responsible for instructing citizens in such beliefs and values.
Marxists, however, tend to view political culture as an artificial creation rather than the product of history. They view political culture as an ideological weapon through which society is indoctrinated to accept views which are in the interests of its dominant classes (defined as those who own the means of production).