1. POLITICS &
GOVERNMENT

2. Md. Sajib Chowdhury
ID No: 16411069 Section: A
Department of International Relations
Faculty of Security and Strategic Studies (FSSS)
Bangladesh University of Professionals

3. KEY CONTENTS
POWER &
AUTHORITY
3 Types of
Authority
POLITICS IN
GLOBAL
PERSPECTIVES
Types of
Politics
THEORIES OF
POWER IN
SOCIETY

4. POWER AND AUTHORITY
:SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS
POLITIC POWER MICROPOLITICS
MACROPOLITIC
S
LEGITIMATE
POWER
ILLIGETIMATE
POWER
GOVERNMEN
T
AUTHORIT
Y

5. POWER AND AUTHORITY
• Essentially, politics is associated with the
govt, kings, queens, coups, dictatorship,
voting , etc. But the term actually has a much
broader meaning.
• Definition of Politics – polity
: Is the social institutions that distributes
power, sets a society’s goals and make
decision.
: the exercise of power and attempts to
maintain or to change power relations.

6. • – Max Weber claimed that every society is
based on power.
–Power is the ability to achieve desired
ends despite resistance from others.
–Power is the ability to carry out one’s will,
even over the resistance of others.
–Power struggles – workers with their
bosses, power struggle within family
members, (all these attempts to gain or
keep power) these also consider as
political actions.
Definition of Power

7. • Therefore, in our everyday life, we practice
power. Additionally, the elements of power
according to symbolic interactionist could be
categorized into two:
i) Micropolitics – to refer to the exercise of
power in everyday life
ii) Macropolitics – refers to the exercise of
power over a large group
E.g.: the governments; whether dictatorship or
democracies, they are the examples of
macropolitics.

8. POWER AND AUTHORITY
• For every society development, it is
inevitably for a society to encompassed a
system of leadership.
• Some people must have power over others
• Weber perceive power into two type that is
legitimate power and illegitimate power.
–Legitimate power : is called as authority i.e.
power people accept as right.
–Illegitimate power : known as coercion i.e.
power that people do not accept as just.

9. POWER AND AUTHORITY
• The use of power is the business of
government. Government is a formal
organization that directs the political life of a
society.
• How do government try to make itself seem
legitimate in the eyes of the people?
• Through – “authority” as mentioned by
Weber.
• Authority - power that people perceive as
legitimate rather than coercive. This relations
of power authority is legitimate
• How do governments transform raw power
into more stable authority?

10. POWER AND AUTHORITY
: Types of Authority
Traditional
Authority
Rational
Legal
Authority
Charismatic
Authority

11. Traditional Authority
• Traditional Authority; power legitimized by
respect for long-established cultural patterns.
• Characteristics of Traditional Authority:
a) preindustrial societies
b) populations collective memory –
people’s accept a system
c) usually one of hereditary leadership
d) strong power in political system,
absolute power and almost godlike
e) Source of strength for patriarchy,
domination by men

12. • Examples of Traditional Authority:
- Chinese emperors
- Aristocratic rulers in medieval Europe
• Traditional authority declines as societies
industrialize.
• Traditional authority remains strong only as
long as everyone shares the same belief and
way of life (Hannah Arendt,1963).
• How ?
a) Through modern scientific thinking,
b) the specialization demanded by industrial
production and,
c) the social changes and,
d) the cultural diversity resulting immigration
all combine to weaken tradition.

13. Rational Legal Authority
• Weber defined rational legal authority
(bureaucratic authority) :as power legitimized
by legally enacted rules and regulations.
• Rational legal authority is power legitimized in
the operation of lawful government.
• Weber viewed bureaucracy as the type of
organization that dominates in rational
thinking, modern societies.
• Members of today’s high income societies seek
justice through the operation of a political
system that follows formally enacted rules of
law.
• Rationally enacted rules also guide the use of
power in everyday life.

14. Examples of Rational Legal
Authority:
a) The authority of deans / classroom teachers/
lecturers – rests on the offices they hold in
bureaucratic colleges and universities
b) The police officer / police traffic / security
guard in uniform possessed rational legal
authority

15. Charismatic Authority
• Charismatic authority: is power legitimized by
extraordinary personal abilities that inspire
devotion and obedience.
• Charismatic authority depends less on a person’s
ancestry or office and more on personality.
• Charismatic authority characteristics:
a) using their personal skills to turn an
audience into followers
b) make their own rules and challenge the
status quo

16. a) Prophet Mohammad
b) Jesus of Nazareth
c) Adolf Hitler
d) India’s liberator, Mahatma Gandhi
e) US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
• Charismatic authority flows from a single individual, the
leaders death creates a crisis.
• Survival of a charismatic movement, Weber explained,
requires the “routinization of charisma” – the
transformation of charismatic authority into some
combination of traditional and bureaucratic authority.
Examples:

17. POLITICS IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
: Types of Politics
Monarchy Democrac
y
Authoritari-
anism
Totalitarianism
Dictatorship &
Oligarchies
Types of Governments

18. MONARCHY VS.DEMOCRACY
ASPECT MONARCHY DEMOCRACY
RULER  Single ruler
 Collective / majority
ruler
SELECTION OF THE RULER
 Ascribed status
 Inheritance / singles
family rules from
generation to gen.
 Achieved status
 Election / people’s
decision
RULING SYSTEM /
RULING MECHANISM
 Royal
 Only few line
 Legislative,
judiciary and
executive
TYPE
 Traditional political
system
 Modern political
system
POLITICAL RIGHTS
 Right and power meant to
the royal families
 No freedom of speech
 Right and power to
the people
 Stress on the
freedom of speech
TYPE OF AUTHORITY  Traditional authority
 Rational-legal