• THIS MORNING:
• Course overview
• Web page: www.udel.edu/htr/American
• The notion of a political system
• A case for government
• A discussion of why at least some amount of political coercion is necessary in a free society.



• POLITICAL SYSTEM:
• Institutions:
• Roles, rules, norms, expectations
• Although subject to change, institutions persist through time.
• Institutions interact with one another and affect and are effected by their "environment."
• Political institutions in one way or another involve generalized power.
• It is a system in the loose sense of the word: change in one part may lead to changes in others.
• Power (an aside)
• One definition: X gets Y to do something Y would not other wise do.
• Method: use of resources
• Resources can be translated into power; that is, used to make Y do something Y would not otherwise do.
• Examples: money, skill, prestige, time, organizational backing, fame, brute strength.
• Actors:
• (Historical) individuals who actually play or carry out institutional roles.
• The problem of "agency": the role of the great person in history.
• How much influence to specific people really have on events?
• The environment:
• Those elements (institutions, ideas, people, events, etc.) that affect and are affected by the political system.

• THE NATURE OF COLLECTIVE ACTION:
• The problem of the commons and rational (free) behavior: individuals acting rationally in their own interests can and frequently do bring ruin on the community and hence on themselves.
• Example to be discussed in class
• The problem of public goods;
• What would happen if Congress passed a law making support for the military voluntary, much as contributions to charities are voluntary?
• The problem of the market place
• Free riders and freedom
• Should the government leave environmental protection market place?
• Major proposition: To escape the (inevitable?) problem of the destruction of the commons and free riders some form of coercion is necessary.
• This is a possible justification for government
• Problems that only individuals organized into social groups can solve.
• Major argument: many 21^st century problems can only be solved by collective action
• Major proposition: the list of such problems is greater than conventional political wisdom suggests.



• NEXT TIME:
• Democracy and political capacity
• Reading:
• For now skim Patterson, Chapter 1. We'll come back to it.
• Start reading the New York Times for clipping file.
• Start independent reading.

Go to Notes page

Go to American Political System page

Go to H. T. Reynolds page