GOV 312L Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Critical Role, Extortion, John Ikenberry
Document Summary
Module 12: violence and the international political order. What is politics: use of authority to allocate scarce resources (+ use that authority to settle conflicts among individuals or groups within society) Allocation of scarce resources: implies some degree of competition or social conflict over that allocation (which groups get their needs met and which don"t) politics is about using authority to settle these distributional conflicts within society. Political order: stable patterns or regularities of social behavior induced by authority relationships and/or coercion. Reminder: coercion is generally necessary to the provision of authority (legitimacy), but coercion on its own does not equate with authority. Critical role for coercion and violence in politics. Violence (deployment or threat of it) often necessary for enforcement of directives. Capacity to use physical force is sometimes necessary to enforce laws that are designed to coordinate social behavior so people can interact peacefully. 6th street on a weekend night at 2 a. m.
