POL 607 Lecture : POL607-L2.docx

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Politics and Public Administration
• Course: POL 607
• Professor: Joseph Zboralski

Document Summary

Its because it impacts/governs everything in our lives. Aristotle said that politics was the master science . Origin of politics comes from ancient greek word polis. Polis was a city state where initial arguments and votes began. Democracy lasted about 100 years until sparta gained control. Initial problem/criticism with democracy was that voters weren"t knowledgeable. Polis (different ways to look at politics/different definitions) (1) decision-making. Democracy gives some power to the people (2) conflict resolution. Focuses on the idea that humans are prone to conflict due to human nature. Constitutions, laws, police and courts are processes in place to resolve conflicts (3) authoritative allocation of values. Values in the sense of things of values health, wealth, status are all desired by people. This is the process of how these things are allocated. Authoritative implies that the allocation is done through legitimate institutions. The taxes of rich vs. poor vs. middle class.