PSCI 1100 Lecture Notes - Mercantilism, Structural Adjustment, Authoritarianism

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: PSCI 1100
• Professor: Hans Martin Jaeger

Document Summary

Informal (sociological) institutions are relatively enduring patterns of rules and norms (e. g. the family, friendship, property). Formal (political) institutions are forms of organization with codified rules (e. g. parliaments, courts, international organizations, elections). A process such as election involves a formal process of organization. Institutional dynamics: agency (knowledgeable practice) and structure (sets of rules and resources). Social and political outcomes are results of the interplay of agency and structure (e. g. elections). Take into account the relations between the agency and structure. States are both agents (e. g. providers of public goods) and structures (e. g. agents (e. g. providers of public goods) and structures (e. g. of territorial organization). Monopoly of legitimate violence (max weber): suppression of unauthorized private violence. Permission of public violence for law enforcement and war. The state reserves for itself the use of public violence in order to protect the public. Breaks with traditional ideas of morality, i. e. thou shalt not kill.