8. Robert Dahl’s
“Influence Terms”
• Rational persuasion
• Tell the truth and explain why
something should be done.
• Doctor tells you to quit smoking.
• Manipulative persuasion
• Lying to get someone to do something
• Politicians during elections
• Inducement
• Rewards/Punishments to get someone to do
something.
• Bribery
9. Robert Dahl’s
“Influence Terms”
• Power
• Threaten severe punishment.
• Jail or loss of job
• Coercion
• Power with no way out.
• You have to do it.
• Physical Force
• Backing up coercion with use or threat of bodily
harm.
Best governments influence on
the higher end of scale.
11. Legitimacy
• The legal right to govern
• The psychological right to
govern
• An attitude in people’s mind
• The government’s rule is rightful
• Legitimacy established by
• Time
• Governing well
• The structure of government
• National symbols
12. Sovereignty
• To rule over
• The power to
provide security
and rules
• Closely linked with legitimacy
13. Authority
• The psychological ability of leaders to
get others to obey them.
Max Weber’s three types
of authority:
• Traditional Authority
• Charismatic Authority
• Legal-Rational Authority
14. Political
Politicians
Scientists
• Skeptical of power • Love power
• Seek accuracy • Seek popularity
• Abstract thinking • Practical thinking
• Reach tentative • Hold firm views
conclusions
• Offer many causes • Offer single causes
• See long-term • See short-term payoff
consequences
• Plan for next publication • Plan for next election
• Seek good of whole • Respond to groups
• Seek professional • Seek name recognition
prestige
17. Rivals to State Power
• Multinational Corporations (MNCs)
• Have transactions in different states
• Wal-Mart, Sears
• Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)
• Nonstate, voluntary groups that pursue political
objectives
• Red Cross, Doctors without Borders
• Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)
• Membership exclusively by states
• United Nations, NATO
18. Nation or State?
• A nation is a population with a certain sense
of itself, a cohesiveness, a commonality of
attitudes and ideals, and often a common
language.
• A state is a government structure, usually
sovereign and powerful enough to enforce its
writ.
19. Who is a Nation?
• Gay nationalism
• African-American nationalism
• The Southern Nation
• Should nation be applied only to groups
identifying with or striving for the
creation of their own state?
• Multinational states
20. Territory is but the body of
a nation. The people who
inhabit its hills and
valleys are its soul, its
spirit, its life.
-- James A. Garfield
22. “The trouble with the
profit system has
always been that it
was highly
unprofitable to most
people.”
~ E. B. White
Author of “Charlotte’s Web”
and “Stuart Little”
24. Underlying Dynamic
• U.S. poverty is
largely a result of
structural failings
at the economic,
political, and
social levels
25. Structural
Vulnerability
• Lack of adequately
paying jobs
• Ineffectiveness of the social safety net in
preventing poverty
• U.S. allocates smaller proportion of GDP to
social welfare programs than any other
industrialized country except Japan
• Risk of impoverishment experienced by a
majority of Americans
26. Impact of Social
Class
• While some social mobility occurs, social
class tends to reproduce itself
• Impacts children’s ability to acquire valuable
skills and education
• Differences in human capital
29. American Economy
• Larger numbers of
• Low-paying jobs
• Jobs that are part-
time
• Jobs that lack
benefits
30. Musical
Chairs
• There will never be enough quality “living-
wage” jobs for all
• There will always be losers in the “game”
31. “It is a tragic mix-up when the United States
spends $500,000 for every enemy soldier killed,
and only $53 annually on the victims of
poverty.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
