POL S101 Lecture Notes - Harold Lasswell, David Easton, Proletariat

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POL S101
• Professor: Davina Rousell

Document Summary

Greek word = polis (city state or community) Aristotle: man is a political animal" (naturally predisposed to organize ourselves into hierarchy"s and political groups) The study of politics is so multifaceted that finding a clear/common definition of the field is difficult Harold lasswell (1936): politics can be understood as the mechanism used to determine. Who gets what, when, and how based on the assumption of scarcity. Someone has to decide what people will get, because there is simply not enough resources to go around to please every person 100%. David easton (1967): the authoritative allocation of values for a society . Karl marx: politics is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another . Karl marx claims that politics is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another (to eliminate the basis for classes is to eliminate the need for politics or the state).