Introduction to Political Science Why study politics

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Introduction to Political ScienceWhy study
politics?

• Dr Jacqueline Hayden
• jahayden_at_tcd.ie

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Your Tutorial Team

• Head Teaching Assistant
• Caroline McEvoy mcevoyc1_at_tcd.ie
• Ulla Dawidowska dawidou_at_tcd.ie
• Mirjam Allik allikm_at_tcd.ie
• Carolina Plescia plesciac_at_tcd.ie
• Michael Courtney courtnmj_at_tcd.ie
• Edmond Coughlan coughlae_at_tcd.ie
• Madgalena Staniek staniekm_at_tcd.ie

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Politics Matters!

• Political decisions made on our behalf affect all
  our lives even if we didnt vote
• Policy Outcomes
• Health private or public?
• Backing the bankers
• Educational priorities special needs?
• Dealing with drug abuse
• Taxation policy

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Politics and power

• From the moment of birth part of a political
  entity the family!
• Most often families are patriarchal
• The availability of schools determined by
  political choices made by government on behalf of
  the people
• Your educational agenda is set for you
• The ideas and influences you are exposed to
  determines who you become

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Politics and the power of theory

• Political outcomes our world determined by
  political decisions informed by theories and
  philosophies
• Try to understand how different theories of the
  role of the state, the function of government and
  the conflicting rights of individuals versus
  community shape the world as we experience it
• The questions What is the good life?, What is
  the state for?, How much power should the state
  have over me? AND MORE!

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So why does politics matter?

• Politics exists because we do not agree with one
  another. Politics is about choosing between
  competing interests and views often demanding
  incompatible allocations of limited resources
  (Stoker, p. 2) .
• Human nature lies at the heart of why politics is
  central to living together
• Human beings have different often conflicting
  interests
• But to resolve problems we need to engage in
  collective action
• Politics expresses conflicts between us it
  allows different interests to come together and
  shapes what happens to us collectively

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Politics and collective action

• Starting point for decision making is our own
  individual experience partiality of judgement
• People value things differently
• Central question What is the good life?
• Answer determines your political outlook

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Partiality of judgement

• Huge differences over centuries What is the
  good life?
• Liberty/Freedom versus Equality?
• Two concepts of liberty negative and positive
• Negative freedom/liberty
• Political system should only infringe an
  individuals freedom when it prevents actions
  that may hurt others
• Basis of English social thought from Hobbes and
  Locke
• Positive freedom/liberty capacity for
  self-realization and development
• Distinction between negative and positive freedom
  understood as the difference between being free
  from something and being free to do something (I.
  Berlin1958)

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Equality

• Equal consideration within a scheme of
  decision-making - for each person within a scheme
  of decision-making everyones claim to equal
  treatment should be taken equally into account
• Even handed treatment like be treated with like
• Equality in distribution equal treatment
  requires that each person receive an equal amount
  of a good
• Equality in outcome
• The claim that equal treatment requires that
  persons should end up in the same conditions,
  taking account of their situation, before
  distribution and adjusting the amount to be
  distributed to each accordingly

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Valuing negative freedom/liberty

• Liberalism
• Liberal economics/ Market capitalism
• Thatchers Britain Reagan/Bush Administrations
  in the US
• Libertarianism
• all people have a certain set of rights which
  cannot be taken away or annulled in the interest
  of the collective.
• Certain versions of Republicanism (US)
• Gun lobby

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Partiality of judgement

• Valuing Equality
• Communism/Marxism
• Values of equality and social co-operation are
  stressed as opposed to individual self-seeking or
  betterment.
• Socialism
• From each according to his abilities, to each
  according to his needs (Louis Blanc, The
  Organization of Work 1840)
• Social democracy
• Social justice
• Nationalized key utilities
• Welfare state supported by higher and
  proportional
• taxation policies

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Politics and the defence of interests

• Politics defined by some as
• Who gets what, when, how? (H. Lasswell)
• Getting a slice of the cake or hanging on to
  ones bit of the cake
• Politics centres on the allocation of SCARCE
  RESOURCES

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Interest, arbitration and collective action

• Identity and entitlements
• The political agenda changes over a persons life
  cycle
• Much of politics is concerned with collective
  decisions about
• Redistribution
• The costs of Redistributive Polices are passed
  onto society
• Society does not always want to pay the costs of
  redistribution clashes of interests
• Politics is the attempt to resolve collective
  action problems

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In Defence of PoliticsBernard Crick

• Politics is simply the activity by which
  government is made possible when differing
  interests in an area to be governed grow powerful
  enough to need to be conciliatedOther paths are
  always open. Politics is simplythat solution to
  the problem of order which chooses conciliation
  rather than violence and coercion, and chooses it
  as an effective way by which varying interests
  can discover that level of compromise best suited
  to their common survival.(5th ed,Continuum2000)

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Reading

• Andrew Heywood, 3rd Edition, Politics p. 3-13
• Gerry Stoker, Why Politics Matters Introduction
  
• Reference in lecture to
• Isaiah Berlin, 1958, Four Essay on Liberty
• Noam Chomsky article Irish Times October 10th
  2009
• http//www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/
  1010/1223560345968.html