Understanding Politics, Power, and Citizen Participation
Understanding Politics and Power
Politics is popularly understood as the art of governing, a restricted role of the state. The term policy is used to indicate the performance of institutions or segments of society: economic policy, labor policy, environmental policy, education policy.
Politics is the activity that refers to the management of public good. Politics is the set of power relations in society.
Power refers to the power relations that individuals or social groups establish from their position in society.
Representative Democracy and Political Actors
Representative democracy is the most common form of government in the state today. The participation of individuals seems to be limited to the choice of representatives for elective office among candidates from different parties.
Politicians represent the interests of social groups.
Seen in institutional politics, special interests are presented as the interests of the whole society.
In civil society, mass media, schools, churches, businesses, and families present social problems in a partial and fragmented way.
The individual, isolated, is blamed for the situation they are in. Thus, it becomes difficult to understand and assume our responsibility to the community.
The Modern State and Contemporary Society
The modern state is organized as an administrative machine that governs society and ensures both civil liberties and the relations and values of a market economy.
The new theories question the divine or natural order based on social and political relations and develop new notions about the individual, property, freedom, and the legitimacy of power.
In contemporary democratic societies, power is exercised by the combination of overt coercion (the police force or military, law, justice) with the formation of consensus.
Political Indifference and its Consequences
Political indifference is the accommodation of a person or group, leaving policy decisions in the hands of small groups.
Causes of political indifference: The forms of delegation of power, the massification of social behavior, and individualism are some of the causes of political indifference.
Types of indifference: Unconscious and conscious.
From political indifference may be born authoritarian policies, corruption, and other forms of outrage.
Omission is also a form of political participation, although passive. Leaving decisions that should be taken by the whole community in the hands of small groups. These groups end up defending their interests.
Citizenship and its Limitations
A citizen is an individual who has rights and duties to the community in which they participate and should respect and protect the common interest.
The rights of all are constrained by social division.
Poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy limit the exercise of citizenship.
Ensuring and expanding the exercise of citizenship involves questioning our economic model while enhancing democracy.
Political Participation and Social Influence
Political participation is limited, in practice, by the division of society into classes, by economic inequality, and by political unconsciousness.
Strength is the ability to influence or act upon each other. Strength is not necessarily expressed as overt coercion or imposition; it is also present in the form of authority and discipline that are submitted to in society.