Политическая система

Each society must have a political system in order to have recognized procedures for the allocation of valued resources—in Harold D. Lasswell’s terms, for deciding who gets what, when, and how. We have examined various types of political authority and forms of government and explores the dimensions of the American political system.

1. Power relations can involve large organizations, small groups, or even individuals in an intimate relationship.
2. There are three basic sources of power within any political system — force, influence, and authority.
3. Max Weber provided ( e of the most useful and frequently cited contributions of early sociology by identifying three ideal types of authority: traditional, legal-rational, and charismatic.
4. The United States, as a society which values the role of law, has legally defined limits on the power of government.
5. In the 1980s, monarchies hold genuine governmental power in only a few nations of the world.
6. Today, oligarchy often takes the form of military rule, although the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China can be described as oligarchies in which power rests in the hands of the ruling Communist party.
7. Political scientists Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski have identified six basic traits that typify totalitarianism: large-scale use of ideology, one-party systems, control of weapons, terror, control of the media, and control of the economy.
8. The United States is commonly classified as a representative democracy, since we elect members of Congress and state legislatures to handle the task of writing our laws.
9. The principal institutions of political socialization m American society arc the family, schools, and media.
10. Only a small minority of Americans actually participate in political organizations or in decision making on a local or national level.
11. Women are becoming more successful at winning election to public office.
12. An interest group a often national in scope and frequently addresses a wide variety of social and political issues.
13. Advocates of the elite model of the American power structure see the nation as being ruled by a small group of individuals who share common political and economic interests, whereas advocates of a pluralist model believe that power is more widely shared among conflicting groups.
14. Television is having a growing impact on American political campaigns.

Summary of the article

                                           Government and politics

The article is headlined “Government and politics” (Государство и политика). This article comes from site www.articlesbase.come. The author of the text is Michael Newman, writer and economist. The article gives detailed information on different political systems and politics as a power. The author starts by saying that political system is one of the subsystem of society and that it plays powerful role in society.

Firstly the author makes it clear that power is at the heart of all political system. He says that there are three basic sources of power: force, influence and authority.

Further on he mentions that there are 5 basic types of government(monarchy, oligarchy, dictatorship, totalitarism and democracy) and gives brief description of all of these.

Also the author gives some examples, illustrating power structure in the USA. He enumerates  basic models of political structure: Elite Model, The power Elite, The Ruling Class, Pluralist Model.

At the end of the article it is pointed out that power relations can involve large organizations or small groups. The author takes note of powerful role of law in the USA.

The author comes to the conclusion that each society must have a political system in order to have recognized procedures for the allocation of valued resources.

The article is of use for political scientists, sociologists and people who are involved in political life of society.