Understanding Society, Power, and Political Thought
Understanding Society and its Structures
Society: An assembly of individuals who share a culture, with the aim of satisfying a set of basic needs and, subsequently, other secondary needs.
Types of Societies:
- Tribal: The oldest form, arising from the union of family groups with communal property and a very limited social hierarchy.
- Archaic: The next step, linked to agriculture and slavery. Private property, social classes, and taxes emerge.
- Feudal: Land ownership is in the hands of landowners to whom the subjects must obey. Political power is exercised by the king.
- Bourgeois Capitalist: Cities are economic centers. The bourgeoisie becomes the ruling class, resulting in democracies.
Defining Power
Power: The ability of some individuals to lead members of a group, making decisions that affect the entire community and compelling the community to follow their orders.
Different Meanings of Power:
- As Domain: Refers to the ability or capacity someone has over something.
- As Strength: Indicates strength or the capacity to do something.
- As Possession: Used to indicate that an object belongs to someone.
- As Authority: Refers to the coercive force of government or governing bodies.
- As Government: Refers directly to the government of specific political groups.
Political Power
Political Power: The power that has the capability to manage resources, safeguard security, and promulgate laws (with their respective monitoring).
The legitimacy of power is based on social recognition to make use of political power; only individuals who enjoy legitimacy can exercise it.
Philosophical Perspectives on Power and Society
Locke on the Absolute State
The only way to build a common power capable of defending people from foreign invasion and the injury of others is to confer all their power and strength to one man, thus reducing their wills to his will and their judgments to his judgment. It is more than consent; it is a unity of men in an identical person. The republic is a person whose conduct has been assumed by treaties with each other and may use force and the necessary means to guarantee peace and common defense. Thus is the sovereign; the others are subjects.
Locke on Society
In the natural state, men are free and equal to each other and aware of good and evil. However, they also know that consciousness does not guarantee compliance. Therefore, we renounce our absolute freedom because it is full of fears and dangers to our properties. In the natural state, there is a lack of an established, firm, and known law, received and accepted, to be the model of right and wrong. There is no known and impartial judge with authority to rule in legal disputes. It is normal that there is no power that sustains and supports executing fair judgments.
Hobbes on Man in Nature
There are three causes of quarrel in nature: competition, insecurity, and glory. During the time that men are without a common power to compel them to comply with respect, they are at war. War is a period of time where the will to battle exists. In this war, nothing can be unjust; where there is no common power, there is no law, and where there is no law, there is no justice. All other time is peace.