Political Power

Political science is known to be one of the most ignored sciences there are. Over the years, there has not been a demand for everyone to pay attention to politics because people always have their own opinion anyways. Ten Things Political Scientists Know that You Don’t was an article written by Hans Noel. His main objective to writing this was to inform readers of the reasons why politics is something that is important to understand. Many journalists and bloggers became more aware of politics and want to know more about what political scientists actually know. This article also wants to inform many people that political science is something that you can study over a period of time, which is the real reason to pay attention to elections. Hans Noel came up with 10 different things that political scientists know but American citizens do not.

In Aristotle's "Justifying Slavery" and Seneca's "On Master and Slave," the two authors express their opposing sentiments on the principles of slavery. While Aristotle describes slavery as predestined inferiority, evidenced greatly by physical attributes, Seneca emphasizes the importance of "philosophical" freedom as opposed to physical freedom. (p. 58). The authors' contrasting views are disclosed in their judgments on the morality of slavery, the degree of freedom all people possess at birth, and the balance of equality between a slave and his master.

When looking into the ideas of political theorists it is important to the use of political concepts that may play an important role in what the theorists are suggesting and also how they may affect the relationship between to state and the individuals living within a state. The concepts that will be looked at within this essay are: power, authority and also accountability.

The six documents provided in the appendix can be grouped together in many different ways. Although all of the documents imply ways their respective empires exerted political power, there were some distinctions between them. Additionally, all of the documents incorporate their respective cultures’ beliefs into their governments and methods for exerting political power. Document 1, for example, shows that the Persians incorporated their value of bravery into their method of exerting political power, military conquests. The Greeks and Romans in Documents 2 and 6 incorporated their value of freedom into their methods of exerting political power. The Greeks incorporated freedom by boating about their free democracy while the Romans included the

Our text mentions that Political Science “seeks to study human behavior through the use of a scientific method that,

Aristotle, along with many people from his time, believed that certain people were slaves by nature.

In Episode #10, Aristotle addresses the issue of individual rights and the freedom to choose. Aristotle believed that in order to allocate rights, one must first have to figure out the purpose or end of the social practice at question (Sandel, 2009). For example, people can debate and resolve the question at hand. After, one must look at justice as its matter of fit, by fitting persons with their virtues to their appropriate roles. Aristotle gives the example of slavery (Sandel, 2009). In order for slavery to be just, it must have two conditions: 1) slavery must be necessary for the community to function and 2) there has to be people were they are fit by nature to the role of slavery. For the first condition, Aristotle’s explanation is that if people are to be a part of the assembly, to debate the happenings of the community, there needs to be others to take care of the basic needs of the community, that are controlled by the people of the assembly. His explanation to the second condition is that there are some people that are not fit for slavery, and there are some people that are fit for slavery; in other words, it is ones nature to be a slave or not to be a slave.

The first part is the natural slave's existence and characteristics. The second part is the natural slaves in society and how they interact with his or her master. According to Aristotle, natural slaves' main features include being pieces of property, tools for actions, and belonging to others. This quote shows that slaves were not seen as human beings but as pieces of property that belonged to an owner. An enslaved man or woman could have been sold and worked to death like a horse or any other

Political efficacy is citizens believing that their opinion matters to their government; it is when common people believe that they possess the power to change their country due to trusting and believing in their leaders. Political scientists find it crucial to research such a topic in order to allow its meaning to remain true. Without political efficacy, "the key feature of American democracy:government by the people" becomes severely undermined (Ginsberg, pg 7). Therefore, scientists continue to add it as a priority in attempt to benefit America's government and the people it governs. In my opinion, political efficacy is an important subject for political scientists to research because it proves to the governed that their beliefs and thoughts

The natural slaves, however, cannot achieve any such telos due to their natural impairment and inferiority to the citizen. Their natural purpose in life is to serve the ruler and provide for them, since the natural slave lacks such capabilities as reason, "For he is a slave by nature who is capable of belonging to another - which is also why he belongs to another - and who participates in reason only to the extent of perceiving it, but does not have it" (1254b16-23). Usually, as Aristotle points out, natural slaves bread other natural slaves, although, sometimes superiors are known to have natural slaves as well. However, he struggles to determine whether the natural slave is in fact completely rationally impaired and upon what reasons he should be enslaved. Thus, this creates difficulties when trying to differentiate who should be enslaved, why and how to distinguish between a natural slave and a natural

Politics is about the distribution of power. In the Introduction to Social Science course guide it is stated that, “politics can be anywhere”. Therefore, politics is in the language we speak. Power is the “ ability to

Political science is the study of people’s behavior as it relates to control the public organizations. The concept is normally divided into six subcategories: Political philosophy- which deals with

Theories are used in many fields of science, but in no field are they more prevalent than Political Science. These theories are often used and researched upon to try and attempt to discern how states interact with one another. Offensive Realism, a new branch of realist political theory, is brought forth in John Mearsheimer’s book, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. This theory focuses on the key aspects of realism, while adding a twist as to why war is an option. In his book, Mearsheimer explains the history of great powers, and predicts that China, the world’s current rising great power, will not gain hegemony in Asia peacefully. With the rise of China, he asserts the US will form coalitions with multiple states throughout Asia, to contain their growing power. This rise in power, and subsequent reactions by the US, are based on his theory Offensive Realism, which is used to predict China’s future actions. The rise of powers, and the reactions of other powers, is historically analyzed, beginning in the late 18th century, all the way to modern times. These analyzes each attempt to support his overall claim that China will rise through non-peaceful means, and shows significant support with historical examples. While the theory often meets an exception when the usual non-European power, Japan, is mentioned, Mearsheimer’s theory introduces a solid new aspect to the realm of Political Science, and presents enough evidence and information to be considered integral to

The just exercise of political power is conceived of as resting upon constitutional principles. Constitutional principles are a position from which we operate justly. However, what constitutes as just? Throughout history political power derived from many historical foundations that were deemed just based on the society that upheld those principles. This notion is evident throughout the development of constitutional doctrines in Greek democracy, Aristotle’s political theory, Roman Republicanism, and English Constitutionalism.

Before a serious investigation of any aspect of Aristotle’s political theories is undertaken, we must take a moment to acknowledge that many of the institutions and doctrines he defends have been repudiated in modern political thought. In fact many such institutions are appalling and simply morally wrong. One such institution is slavery. Aristotle argues in the Politics that slavery is just. No argument is needed to conclude that Aristotle made a terrible ethical and moral error in defending slavery. Further we must accept that the argument of the abolition of slavery was available to him as his defense of slavery is in response to critics who claim slavery is unjust. What sparks intriguing debate is questioning why