Understanding Political Power: Sovereignty, Institutions, and Legitimacy
Understanding Political Power
Political power is a form of power whose purpose is characterized and does not depend on individual wishes and desires.
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the property of state power that makes it independent of other forms of power and superior to them all.
Society and Power Structures
Society is a stable group of people organized under a law or basic constitution and ruled by sovereign power structures.
Institutions and Governance
Institutions or structures are government or sovereign power devices that subject individuals and social groups within the state society.
Compulsory vs. General Power
Compulsory: Membership is not optional. General or political: Power intervenes and regulates the economic life of all organizations in the country, not just a specific group.
Illegitimate Power
Illegitimate power: Power considered spurious by the majority.
Types of Authority
Charismatic Authority
Charismatic authority: Based on the exceptional and exemplary character of the leader, inspiring faith and providing leading provisions.
Traditional Authority
Traditional authority: Founded on the belief in the sacred value of certain institutions from which power is legitimately derived.
Legal Authority
Legal authority: Based on an accepted set of fundamental laws or a constitution that sets the context and order in which authority is exercised.
Sources of Power
Force, violence, and war have been sources of power and authority from the earliest human societies.
Tradition and privilege are secondary sources of legitimation of power. Law and reason are sources of justification and legitimization of power in liberal democratic states that appeared in the West after the seventeenth century.
Totalitarian vs. Rule of Law
A totalitarian state is one in which power interferes in all spheres of life of individuals and where public authorities are not subordinate to the law. A rule of law state is one in which certain aspects of personal relationships or groups are not regulated by public authorities.
Democratic vs. Authoritarian States
Democratic state: Leaders participate in institutions through legal channels. Dictatorship or authoritarian rule: A state that does not support the participation of citizens in its institutions.
Individualism and Social Order
Liberal individualism: A contradictory approach that considers it essential to maintain social order.
Principles of Rule of Law
Popular sovereignty: The first premise of a rule of law. State public power is exercised as delegated by the people. Separation of powers: Locke and Montesquieu define this premise of the rule of law. The legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Principle of legality: The administration must respect the laws. Principle of normative hierarchy: State organs establish norms. The constitutional principle: All laws and regulations emanating from state organs must adhere to the Constitution.
Political Democracy
Political democracy involves the participation of all citizens in the political leadership or government. Popular sovereignty expresses the right to this participation.
Political Parties
A political party is a permanent organization that unites homogeneous conceptions about public affairs and expresses their social option in a program.
The Welfare State
The welfare state participates in the economic and social system, regulates the working world, and guarantees everyone a minimum standard of living.
Globalization
Globalization subordinates the institutions and social achievements of the state to the world market.
The Liberal State
The liberal state: Individuals limit some of their rights and freedoms through a contract or agreement that ensures the state’s effective exercise of citizens’ rights.
The Democratic State
The democratic state: Citizens live on social security and recover freedom because, by obeying the general will, each governs themselves.
Subjective vs. Objective Right
The subjective right is the power or authority that a person has to make, possess, or demand, with a corresponding duty to respect it. The objective right is the set of rules and laws that organize a civil society and govern the conduct of its members.