SOC103 – Chapter 15 – Politics & Ideologies

 Especially interested in how political power is converted into authority

 By October of 2009: Canadians had experienced 3 elections within 5 years, having cost hundreds of millions of dollars, paid by the
taxpayer
 Politics: processes by which individuals & groups act to promote their interests. In the last few years have been aimed at dividing
Canadians rather than bringing them together. This is obvious in the advertisements political parties use to characterize & attack
their opponents. TV ads regularly highlight the other party’s faults rather than making the public aware of a political platform. As a
result, confidence in all the major parties is low, voter turnout is low, & people lack interest in the various party leaders
 Citizens: people who belong to a state. Citizenship developed out of the relative freedom of city life, granting equal treatment for all
residents.
 State: the institutional mechanism that collects & spends their taxes, makes their laws, & ultimately controls their lives. The set of
institutions with authority to make the rules that govern a society. Weber wrote that the state (claims a monopoly of the legitimate
use of physical force within a given territory”
Illegal in Canada to discriminate against someone for their political views
Ways of looking at politics
 Talcott Parsons: The Social System (1964 [1951]): Goal attainment function: social systems (i.e. families, small groups, large
organizations, empires etc) have a political process which is necessary for its survival, it is not imposed or sinister. The political
structure (or subsystem) is not so much committed to control & oppression as it is to management, administration & the promotion
of citizen engagement. Expresses & strives to achieve collective goals through debate & concerted action. Parsons assumes that
people in the society usually consent to this political process & its leaders. Criticized: more philosophical & anecdotal than historical
& more qualitative than quantitative. Works similar to Lipset & Adams, who want to connect political ideas to historical events &
cultural values & believes that clusters of demographic & psychographic (or value) features will shape the political functioning of a
society. Thus, a society’s politics is deeply rooted in people’s beliefs & needs, as well as in their histories. They also believe in the
value of public awareness & public engagement in the political process
 George Homans, The Human Group (1950): functionalist, microstructure of politics. Social exchange theory: small groups mainly
rule themselves through processes of informal control (small-group politics), i.e. include ridiculing, or excluding people who violate
the group’s productivity norms. Payoff: the practical reasons people value such self-government in groups
 Barrington Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship & Democracy: Lord & Peasant in the Making of the Modern World (1966): critical,
class relations & their effects on politics. During the process of modernization, it matters whether the dominant class in society is the
middle class (leads to democracy), peasant class (communism), or traditional ruling class (landowning aristocracy, supported by
military & Church) (fascism)
Classic Studies: The First New Nation
 Lipset, The First New Nation (1967): mirror-question: what makes American society different. Born in revolutionary war & a
commitment to equality & achievement (somewhat conflicting values, yet grounded in American identity, born in the revolution
which birthed the nation, basis for institutions such as the American family, school, political party & trade union). The British, & to a
lesser extent the Canadians, put less emphasis on equality of opportunity because of their more elitist values. By contrast, Australia
is more equalitarian & treats achievement more like the US does, but because it never had a revolution, Australia is somewhat less
politically populist than the US. Canada is somewhere between the US & UK in its central values: more egalitarian than British but
less so than the US & Australia, & less concerned with achievement & opportunities for achievement than is the US. Difference exists
because US was born in blood (revolutionary war & civil war). Canada was founded in peace, largely by pro-English Loyalists fleeing
the American Revolution. Canada never had a civil war.
 McCormack (1964): criticizes Lipset’s conclusions about the elitist emphasis in Canadian development, asserting that Canada may be
more “ascriptive in its status system, more diffuse & more particularistic than the US but no less stable.
 Lipset: Agrarian Socialism (1950): rise of NDP in Saskatchewan & why North Dakota next-door did not develop a socialist movement
Political Science & Political Sociology
 Political Science: machinery of government & public administration, & with elections, public opinion polling, pressure groups &
political parties.
 Political Sociology: relations between politics, social institutions (i.e. families, churches, workplaces, ethnic groups & social classes),
ideologies & culture. Also study political processes within social institutions, & the way that power is distributed & used in different
social relationships.
 Ideologies: coherent sets of interrelated beliefs about the nature of the world that imply or demand certain courses of political,
social, or economic action.
 Power: according to Weber, the ability of persons or groups to achieve their objectives, even when opposed. Power is the capacity
to compel people to act in certain ways, & politics is the process by which people gain & exercise this power
Political Authority
In Canada, political parties compete to hold the majority of these seats in the House of Commons. The party with the most seats at the end of a
federal election forms the government.
Authority: power that is considered legitimate by the people who are subject to it
Weber: three types of authority
 Traditional: supported by ancient traditions, dynastic inheritance (), authority is descended directly from God (i.e. chiefs, elders,
Louis XIV of France, longest-ruling monarch - 72 years). Although no longer a colony, Canada is still part of the Commonwealth
 Charismatic: based on exceptional qualities, personality, may invoke God, anti-traditional, promote new social values
 Rational-legal: most common, formally established rules & procedures. Weber: basis of bureaucratic organization & modern states
The State
Three different kinds of modern states:
Authoritarian: forbid public opposition, forceful compliance, display of public support, complete control over country with co-operation of
military, state church &/or foreign multinational corporations. US (a liberal democracy) has propped up dictatorships for their own interests
Totalitarian: more extreme, more stable version of authoritarian states, intervenes in public & private life, complete loyalty & compliance,
completely controls distribution of rewards & punishment (i.e. Nazi Germany & the Soviet Union under Stalin, Orwell: Animal Farm)
Liberal-democratic: ideally governed by citizens. Do not monitor every action & belief, nor suppress free speech & assembly
 Direct democracy: oldest type of democracy, Athens, all citizens discussed & voted on all issues of importance
 Representative democracy: views expressed periodically when they elect representatives to federal Parliament or provincial
legislature (i.e. Canada)
 Constitutional monarchy: Head of state inherited position for life & is controlled by Parliament (i.e. Norway, Canada & Britain)
 Republic: Head of state (president) is elected & replaced periodically (i.e. US, France)
 Constituencies & ridings: How Canada is divided, each of which citizens elects a representative (mini-elections).
o First-past-the-post method: party with most votes in a constituency wins. Exclude smaller parties from representation,
even if they gain a substantial number of votes, i.e. majority of the voters can be unrepresented in a multi-party race
o Proportional representation system: each party’s votes are totaled for entire country, i.e. 10% of votes is 10 seats
 Aside from voting periodically, citizens of democratic societies organize interest & lobby groups to advance particular causes.
 Typically, political participation can be predicted sociologically, i.e. formal education is a strong predictor of political participation.
 Democratic pluralism: all citizens can voice their views & pursue their interests, but state should be a neutral referee, no favoritism
Gender & the state
 McIntosh (1978): state encourages employers to take advantage of women’s free services (social reproduction) in the household to
maintain low wages in the workforce.
 Brodie (1996): even state polices promote women’s subordination, especially when they ignore women’s needs & interests.
 Beaujot & Ravanera (2009): lack of good-quality, subsidized child care prevents many women from working outside the home
 In most of Canada, women did not gain the right to vote until 1918, & in Quebec, not until 1940. The year 1929 marked the first time
women were declared persons by the federal government & given the right to become members of senate.
 Cool (2008): women take up 22.1% (68) of all members of Parliament (MPs)
 Bashevkin (1985): more powerful the political position, the less likely that a woman will occupy it
 Kim Campbell: only female prime minister in Canada but her time in office was brief. Major exception to this pattern is office of
Governor General, the highest position in Canadian politics, representing the Queen, which has been held by three women: Jeanne
Sauve (1984-1990), Adrienne Clarkson (1999-2005) & Michaelle Jean (2005-2010)
 Sylvia Bashevkin (2009): Political scientist, Canadians seems uncomfortable with the idea of putting a woman in a position of
political power. Where voter turnout is high, or where proportional representation is practiced, more women are elected to office.
 Women’s lack of participation in politics is not the result of their choice not to participate. Rather, structural & social barriers limit
their efforts
 Equal Voice: a non-profit organization which promotes the election of women in Canadian politics, women are less likely than men
to enter politics. Chiefly, they suffer from financial constraints, limited access to helpful informal networks & opposition within
political party networks to their membership, which is both subtle & direct. According to various polls, most Canadians want more
women in politics (Equal Voice, 2006)
 Moss (2009): Sweden has achieved gender parity in politics
 Elizabeth May: in the Canadian federal elections of 2008, of the five party leaders, only one was a woman
Politics in Canada: A Primer
Legislation: power divided mainly between federal & provincial governments, according to the British North America Act of 1867
New Democratic Party (NDP): originally Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) but changed name in 1961, formed 1932, modeled on
Europe’s labour & social democratic parties, by a coalition of socialist, farm, co-operative & labour groups & the League for Social
Reconstruction. In 1944, became first socialist government in North America, in Saskatchewan. Since then, wins 10-20% of votes in federal
elections (NDP would benefit from proportional representation), mainly from workers, farmers, educated professionals & those dissatisfied
with the two major parties (Perrella, 2009). Other federal parties: Bloc Quebecois, Conservative Alberta Alliance & Green Party of Canada. Only
the Liberals & Conservative parties have ever governed federally. Unlike US, Canada has a history of third-party challenges to the dominant two
Canadian system far less representative of popular views:
 Elects candidate who receives a simple plurality of the votes cast
 Constituencies or ridings send one representative, but ridings vary in size
 Party with most seats wins not with the most votes overall. Bias for parties that appeal to less populated (I.e. rural or small-town)
constituencies. Party with 40% of popular vote generally wins. In 2006 & 2008, no party reached 40% resulting in a minority
government. Significant numbers of votes may fail to translate into seats. I.e. in 2008 Green Party won 6.8% of the vote but no seats
Blais et al. (2009): more visible a party is, more support it is likely to win
Elections Canada (2009): voter turnout has steadily decreased to about 60% of eligible voters
Johnston, Krahn & Harrison (2006): this drop may be the result of democratic deficit in Canada & dissatisfaction with the current system
Adsett (2003): throughout Canada, people of younger age groups (usually those under 30) are least likely to vote
Statistics Canada (2003): Many young adults find politics boring or irrelevant to their everyday lives. However, even though young people are
less likely to vote than middle-aged people, they are more likely to engage in other political activities
Report titled Willing to Participate: Political Engagement of Young Adults: those in their 20s, 15% less likely than middle-aged to vote, were
more likely to sign petitions or attend public meetings on political issues (especially those with higher education, born in Canada & Quebecers)
Canadian politics: little interest in election, no Canadian party sparks the entire nation’s interest, creating political fervor unlike US elections.
Canadian political life is stable but boring. Also lacks the danger & oppression associated with totalitarian societies.
Michel Foucault: argues that, even in liberal democracies, the state can be dangerously powerful.
Classic Studies: Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1979)
  Trend in national states: increased surveillance & control over citizenry (due to bureaucratization & goal of punishment rather than
security)
 Code of Hammurabi (1790 BC): first known legal code, punished many crimes with death, dismemberment or exile, no prisons as we
know today, punishment quick & inexpensive, public spectacle with specific rules for the torture or execution (modern ex., Iran
stoning adulterers)
 Backlash: this kind of punishment, though inexpensive, often provoked pity for the tortured criminal
 18th century: torture largely eliminated & imprisonment now standard punishment for most crimes, private, correctional not
punitive, record-keeping became important. The rise of knowledge, including social sciences, accompanied the rise of centralized
power.
 Surveillance: another technique for discipline, Bentham’s idea of Panopticon: prison where guards can always see the prisoners, but
prisoners cannot see the guards, leads to self regulation. In a disciplinary society, liberal democratic or not, surveillance is
everywhere, leads to political stability, however repressive.
 Through conviction & imprisonment: crime becomes de-politicized (distinguished from politics & power). Even disadvantaged
people, who are disproportionately likely to receive punishment, distance themselves from criminals & delinquents as a group
The political role of ideology
 Antonio Gramsci: capitalism also maintains control through manipulation of ideas & ideologies, by controlling a hegemonic culture,
values of the bourgeoisie becomes the common-sense values of all (i.e. there are winners & losers, blaming the victim for
inequality). The dominant ideology is also an important part of popular culture & entertainment (i.e. American culture places high
value on heroism & war, made it easy to mobilize public sentiment for Iraq war). The working class must develop a culture of its
own.
Ideologies & Publics
 Public: unstructured set of people who hold certain views about a particular issue. Ideologies, which are simplified & distorted
versions of reality, help to structure this public’s participation in society
 Propaganda: mass communication whose purpose is to influence people’s political opinions & actions
Ideologies & Actions
Reformist ideologies: minor changes without challenging basic ground rules (resulted in Medicare, welfare & employment insurance)
Radical ideologies: reshaping society by challenging its foundation (I.e. CCF adopted the Regina Manifesto with mission to wipe out capitalism)
 Both can be considered counter ideologies as they challenge the bases of dominant ideologies (promoted by the intelligentsia)
Marxist theory: dominant ideologies promote false consciousness, a view of the world that is out of sync with objective reality.
In a capitalist society, the dominant ideology may blame workers for their own unemployment.
In a feudal society, the dominant ideology may blame peasants for their sinfulness & disobedience.
In a patriarchal society, the dominant ideology may blame women for any signs of insubordination or licentiousness.
Jurgen Habermas (critical theorist)
Social learning: dynamic & unpredictable from one epoch to another, not linear & progressive as Marx had argued
Only such a goal is truly rational in a society: seek the creation of community through communicative action that strives for agreement
between groups mutually perceived as Other
Theory of Communicative Action (1981): communicative rationality that considers the effect power has on the situation of discourse &
opposes the traditional idea of an objective & functionalist reason.
In a deliberative democracy: citizens would thoughtfully debate governmental policy & law, rationality would prevail, Habermas believes, as
people would be guided by a sense of the importance of the task & a desire to participate in governance. But such a process could be skewed
by the inequalities & divided interests created by private ownership
Roth (2009): definition of truth is troublesome, thus sociological inquiry should not aim for truth, but rather for understanding.
Heath (2009): social science that underpins Marxism is obsolete
Keat (2008): Habermas fails to show how political ethics can be subject of rational discussion, independent of other moral & practical concerns
Hall (2009): Distinguish social trends from other present temporalities. Modernity is a hybrid that bridges diachronic & strategic temporalities
 Diachronic developments tend toward what Habermas described as colonization of the lifeworld – the imposition on everyday life
of instrumental rationality based on bureaucracies & market-forces.
 Strategic temporalities reflect the durability of the here-&-now & the accretion of multiple, personal experiences.
Habermas: his concept of public sphere he influenced trying to explain the dynamics of media as systems of interacting with other systems &
has helped to clarify normative debates about democracy. The belief in the reciprocal relationship between empirical research & public debate
is central to all his work & the Frankfort school. Benson (2009): criticizes him for taking the media system as a given, then orienting his analysis
toward effective strategies to exert influence in the face of this supposedly invariant media. Germany was a liberal democratic society before
Nazism, Hitler was elected, who was totalitarian, Nazi were rational-legal, what went wrong? Public sphere: we need an environment where
people can meet and discuss ideas to come up with the best ideas regardless of rank & social background, just merit of ideas. Ideal speech:
ideas weighted equally, i.e. difficult, internet comes closer but some people are better communicators even online. Radical reconstruction,
there is no post-colonial era, we are still colonizing in different ways
Edwards (2009): how Habermas’s concepts of communicative action & colonization might aid in the revival of UK public sector (teachers)
unions. Finds that what Habermas calls communicative action: process through which actors in society seek to reach common understanding &
to coordinate actions by reasoned argument, consensus & co-operation rather than strategic action strictly in pursuit of their own goals – has
lead to new ways for union members to discuss union policy, in schools, at union meetings, & online, despite efforts made by neo-liberal
governments to colonize & undermine these communicative spaces through public sector restructuring.
Another concept Habermas developed is that of lifeworld, a term invented by Husserl in 1936. For Habermas, whose sociological approach is
grounded in the analysis of communication, the lifeworld consists of informal, culturally grounded understandings & mutual accommodations,
rooted in widely shared social & cultural arrangements.
Wicks & Reason (2009): success of a project aimed at social change often depends on what happens at the beginning of the inquiry process:
specifically, what matters is the way access is established & people are engaged early on. Opening up communicative space requires group
development that passes through phases of inclusion, control & intimacy.
Frankfurt School (critical theory): No longer on the left-wing of sociology, exemplified by Habermas is now viewed as close to sociology’s
theoretical centre: a modern version of Mills’s sociological imagination. This stance recognizes the importance of social criticism, moral
engagement, & a focus on power, social change, & social action. Unlike traditional Marxism, it also recognizes the importance of reflexivity
(self-awareness), contingency (historical circumstances), & multiple viewpoints in social analysis
New Insights
 Hunter (2007): debate between critical & postmodern theorists, odd considering the atheoretical stance of most government policy-
makers
 Zizek (2008): in this era of rapid change – as we discard old social forms & adopt new technologies – we are bombarded with
injunctions to abandon old paradigms. New Age wisdom is that this is the post-human era. We seem unable to realize the New can
enable the Old to survive.
 Cassinari & Merlini (2007): political, economic & social characteristics of the modern West include free-market capitalism, individual
property, democratic rule, civil society & respect of human rights. The move from modern to postmodern eras is the link to
temporality. Whereas the modern identity of the West was historical, postmodern West is ahistorical – post-historical. The
renunciation of a historical time dimension – the distinguishing trait of postmodern Western identity – will pose problems of
belonging (despite distance) & continuity (despite discontinuity)
 Fives (2009): postmodernists reject the universalist-rationalist framework of liberalism. When they defend liberal democracy, they
do so only in relativistic terms, not in absolute terms like the modernists. That is, they do not see liberal democracy as good in itself.
Critical theorists have less willingness to accept a relativist position & therefore more willingness to reject the postmodern analysis.
 Kurnik (2009): current crisis of capitalism highlights the troubled role of labour in modern society, only a transformation of labour
can change the political situation. However, labour has become virtually invisible in the global political economy, even as it takes on
new forms under the influence of finance capital. The current crisis can be solved only by reform or revolution, but postmodern
analysis offers neither
 Nickel (2009): difficult when theorists attempt to combine critical theory & postmodernism in political analyses of the modern
welfare state. Sloganeering, which obstructs ciritical thinking, has no place in such important theories. Yet, only slogans are possible
when theorists try to conflate postmodernism, critical theory, & pragmatism around current political concerns. This statement does
not justify pragmatic, atheoretical political theorizing no one has yet been able to remedy.
 Rostboll (2008): combining political liberalism & critical theory obscure important differences between the two traditions. If we
want to keep deliberative democracy as a critical theory of contemporary society, we should resist convergence. We need to
continue to criticize unreflective acquiescence, incorporating internal autonomy in a complex theory of freedom of which
deliberative democracy should be committed
 Tassone (2008): believes capitalist society is immoral (although Habermas has tried to a place for morality & ethics in a capitalist
society)
 Baral (2008): 9/11 terrorist attacks have become part of the global psyche. The events at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in particular
show how vague is the distinction between state & non-state terrorism.
 Kristjanson-Gural (2008): seek to set up a meeting of the critical & postmodern approaches. He disagrees with the common
characterization of postmodern Marxism as morally relativist & inadequate for systematically analyzing capitalism
 Grosfoguel (2007): radical colonial critical theory can provide a southern, rather than capitalist, perspective on Third World
colonialism & nationalism. There is no postcolonial era: legacy of formal colonial rule lives on as coloniality, or continued domination
by the colonial powers. The myth of decolonization hides persistent racial & colonial hierarchies & new thinking needed to complete
the process of decolonization
 Lima (2008): Edward Said work on international politics & imperialism. Said makes three observations. First, the global hegemony of
the US since the end of WWII works against the establishment of democratic world order. Second, fights for independence &
liberation tend to carry important moral risks for the national conscience in less developed countries. Third, Westerners continue to
harbor stereotypical prejudices against Arabs & Muslims because they don’t understand their culture.
Chapter summary
 Politics: gives us social order, protection & laws to define what is good & bad. Canada is founded on peace, order & good
government.
 Civil liberties: freedoms that protect the individual against government. Includes freedom of speech, assembly, movement & press
 Governments are supported by ideologists that, like state religions, give citizens a sense of purpose & meaning. Also, governments
are supported by laws. These laws ensure two important elements of a democratic society: civil liberties & civil rights.
 Civil rights: rights we consider all people deserve under all circumstances, without regard to race, ethnicity, age, sex or other
personal qualities.