This document discusses concepts related to states, governments, and political authority. It defines a state as a compulsory political organization with a centralized government maintaining a monopoly on legitimate use of force within a territory. Governments are systems that govern organized communities, often with the purpose of providing services like law, military, education. Max Weber identified three types of legitimate political authority: traditional (based on long-established customs), legal-rational (based on established laws and rules), and charismatic (based on an individual's extraordinary personal qualities).

1. What is State?
 It is a compulsory political organization with a centralized government that
maintains a monopoly of the legitimate use of force within a certain geographical
territory.
 States may be as sovereign if they are not dependent on, or subject to any other
power or state. Other states are subject to external sovereignty or hegemony
where ultimate sovereignty lies in another state. Many states are federated states
which participate in a federal union. A federated state is a territorial and
constitutional community forming part of a federation Such states differ from
sovereign states in that they have transferred a portion of their sovereign powers
to a federal government.

2. Two Categories
 "liberal" or "conservative" theories - which treat capitalism as a given, and then
concentrate on the function of states in capitalist society. These theories tend to
see the state as a neutral entity separated from society and the economy.
 Marxist theories - see politics as intimately tied in with economic relations, and
emphasize the relation between economic power and political power. They see the
state as a partisan instrument that primarily serves the interests of the upper class

3. Characteristics of the State
 A state is an organized political community acting under a government. States
differ in sovereignty, governance, geography, and interests.

4. What is Government?
 The word government derives, ultimately, from the Greek verb [kubernáo]
(meaning to steer with gubernaculum (rudder), the metaphorical sense being
attested in Plato's Ship of State).
 A government is the system or group of people governing an organized
community, often a state. It is the political control of a country of people by a
governing body, that has as its purpose the provider ship of greater organized
forms for sake of the people, including law, law enforcement, a military, education,
civil engineering, scientific research, and industry.
 Michel Foucault: government is the “conduct of conduct,” the way some seek to act
upon the conduct of others to change or channel that conduct in a certain
direction
 Government implies that there are relations of power between rulers and ruled, but
the context of rule is not limited to the state.

5. Forms of government
 Autocracy is a system of government in which supreme power is concentrated in
the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal
restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perhaps for the
implicit threat of a coup d'état or mass insurrection)
 1. Despotism - ruled by a single entity with absolute power, whose decisions are
subject to neither external legal restraints nor regular mechanisms of popular
control (except perhaps for implicit threat).
 2. Monarchy - is where a family or group of families (rarely another type of group),
called the royalty, represents national identity, with power traditionally assigned to
one of its individuals, called the monarch, who mostly rule kingdoms.
 Aristocracy (Greek aristokratía, from aristos "excellent", and kratos "power") is a
form of government that places power in the hands of a small, privileged ruling
class.

6. Forms of government
 Democracy In a general sense, in a democracy, all the people of a state or polity
are involved in making decisions about its affairs. Also refer to the rule by a
government chosen by election where most of the populace are enfranchised. The
key distinction between a democracy and other forms of constitutional
government is usually taken to be that the right to vote is not limited by a person's
wealth or race (the main qualification for enfranchisement is usually having reached
a certain age).
 Republics A republic is a form of government in which the country is considered a
"public matter" (Latin: res publica), not the private concern or property of the
rulers, and where offices of states are subsequently directly or indirectly elected or
appointed rather than inherited. The people, or some significant portion of them,
have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected
or chosen by elected people.

7. Scope of government
 Rule by authoritarian governments is identified in societies where a specific set of
people possess the authority of the state in a republic or union. It is a political system
controlled by unelected rulers who usually permit some degree of individual freedom.
Rule by a totalitarian government is characterized by a highly centralized and coercive
authority that regulates nearly every aspect of public and private life.
 In contrast, a constitutional republic is rule by a government whose powers are limited
by law or a formal constitution, and chosen by a vote amongst at least some sections of
the populace (Ancient Sparta was in its own terms a republic, though most inhabitants
were disenfranchised). Republics that exclude sections of the populace from
participation will typically claim to represent all citizens (by defining people without the
vote as "non-citizens"). Examples include the United States, South Africa, India, etc.
 Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by
covenant (Latin: foedus, covenant) with a governing representative head. The term
"federalism" is also used to describe a system of government in which sovereignty is
constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and constituent political
units (such as states or provinces). Federalism is a system based upon democratic rules
and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between national and
provincial/state governments, creating what is often called a federation. Proponents are
often called federalists.

8. Economic Systems
 Historically, most political systems originated as socioeconomic ideologies.
Experience with those movements in power and the strong ties they may have to
particular forms of government can cause them to be considered as forms of
government in themselves.

10. What is Authority?
 It is a concept whose development is most often associated with the German
sociologist Max Weber who saw it as a particular form of power. Authority is
defined and supported by the norms of a social system and generally accepted as
legitimate by those who participate in it.
 identified and distinguished three types of legitimate domination (Herrschaft in
German, which generally means 'domination' or 'rule'), that have sometimes been
rendered in English translation as types of authority, because domination is not
seen as a political concept in the first place. Weber defined domination (authority)
as the chance of commands being obeyed by a specifiable group of people.
 Most forms of authority are not attached to individuals, but rather to a social
position, or status, that they occupy in a social system.
 Examples: We tend to obey the orders of police officers, for example, not because
of who they are as individuals, but because we accept their right to have power
over us in certain situations and we assume others will support that right should we
choose to challenge it.

11. Different Types of Authority
 Traditional
 Legal – rational
 Charismatic

12. Traditional
 Power legitimized by respect for long-established cultural patterns.
 which derives from long-established customs, habits and social structures. When
power passes from one generation to another, then it is known as traditional
authority. The right of hereditary monarchs to rule furnishes an obvious example.
The Tudor dynasty in England and the ruling families of Mewar, in Rajasthan (India)
are some examples of traditional authority.
How?
 Inheritance – are granted traditional authority because they are the children or
other relatives of people who already exercise traditional authority.
 Religious: their societies believe they are anointed by God or the gods, depending
on the society’s religious beliefs, to lead their society.

13. Legal – rational
 Power legitimized derives from law and is based on a belief in the legitimacy of a
society’s laws and rules and in the right of leaders to act under these rules to make
decisions and set policy.
 This form of authority is a hallmark of modern democracies, where power is given
to people elected by voters, and the rules for wielding that power are usually set
forth in a constitution, a charter, or another written document.
 It is that form of authority which depends for its legitimacy on formal rules and
established laws of the state, which are usually written down and are often very
complex. The power of the rational legal authority is mentioned in the constitution.
Modern societies depend on legal-rational authority. Government officials wield
this type of authority in most countries of the world. Bureaucracies are the result of
this type of authority.

14. Charismatic
 stems from an individual’s extraordinary personal qualities and from that individual’s
hold over followers because of these qualities. Such charismatic individuals may exercise
authority over a whole society or only a specific group within a larger society. Joan of
Arc, Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Jesus Christ, Muhammad, NT
Rama Rao and Buddha.
 the charisma of the individual plays an important role, which is derived from "the gift of
grace" or when the leader claims that his authority is derived from a "higher power" or
"inspiration", that is superior to both the validity of traditional and rational-legal
authority and followers accept this and are willing to follow this higher or inspired
authority, in the place of the authority that they have hitherto been following.
 Weber emphasized that charismatic authority in its pure form (i.e., when authority
resides in someone solely because of the person’s charisma and not because the person
also has traditional or rational-legal authority)
 Weber recognized that charismatic authority ultimately becomes more stable when it is
evolves into traditional or rational-legal authority. Transformation into traditional
authority can happen when charismatic leaders’ authority becomes accepted as residing
in their bloodlines.