This lecture’s goal is to establish a conceptual foundation.

You will regularly read and hear in the course’s learning units a series of terms that are commonly used – and thus, their meaning may have become vague or ambiguous.

In this lecture we will try to accurately define them. So, when you find those concepts in this course, you should have a clear idea of what they mean.

The first differentiation will be between “state” and “government”, two terms that are frequently used synonymously.

In the next section, we will introduce the concept of nation – and explain how this term, nation differs from state, culture or government.

Furthermore, we will delve into the concept of democracy. There is an explicit agreement among political actors and intellectuals about the democracy as the only legitimate political regime. As a matter of fact, the most common way to delegitimize any regime is to label it as non-democratic. Wars are fought to defend or install democracy in countries all over the world. To understand what democracy is, we will use in this course the classic and canonical distinction on Aristotle in his treatise on politics.

When talking about political communication, it is also indispensable to discuss the concept of propaganda. Propaganda is a frequently used term in news media outlets. It has normally negative connotations. When political actors or media outlets use the word propaganda, we can expect that they are trying to undermine the communication efforts of the people or institutions accuse of using propaganda. To understand these pejorative connotations, we will use dissect the national-socialist ministry of propaganda lead by the notorious Joseph Goebbels.

We will close this learning unit with a brief analysis of the structure of the U.S. American political system. This final section will not be covered by any of the exams. It is just a reference that may help you understand the contents of the following learning units.

State vs Government

Government:

• The function and faculty of taking executive decisions within any given body of people.
• Management of common resources
• Organization of the community
• Safeguard of the internal order and the defense against external threats.

State:

• As opposed to the government, the state is not something natural. It is a product of a civilizing process.
• “Political technology”
• Rules to do business in the marketplace, to ensure the education of the citizens, to defense the unity of the political entity from internal or external threats, to foster health and wellbeing.

State vs Nation

Nation:

• Group of people that share some common cultural characteristics.
• Language, customs, traditions, and other ethnical features
• Nations with no state, or
• States with several nations

Types of Government

Types of Government

• Monarchy: The power of one. The term comes from the Greek μοναρχία (monarkhía), a linguistic construction formed by μόνος (mónos, “only, one”) and ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “power, authority”).
• Aristocracy: The Greek word,  ἀριστοκρατίᾱ (aristokratíā) literally means “the rule of the best“, that is, “the best-born”, “nobility”). The word comes from ἄριστος (áristos, “best, noblest”) and -κρατίᾱ (-kratíā), from κράτος (krátos, “power, rule”).
• Democracy: The Word derivates  from Ancient Greek δημοκρᾰτῐ́ᾱ (dēmokratíā), δῆμος (dêmos, “people”)+‎ κράτος (krátos, “power, rule”), which is just this, the government of the people.

Degenerated Government

• The Monarchy may degenerate into tyranny.
• The Aristocracy may degenerate into Oligarchy.
• And finally, the Democracy may degenerate into demagogy.

The Iron Law of Oligarchy

Robert Michels (1876-1836)

The word “oligarchy” comes from Greek ὀλιγαρχία (oligarchía); linguistic construct that derivates from ὀλίγος (olígos), which means “few, little, scarce, reduced”, and ἄρχω (archo), meaning (“to rule, to be the first”).

According to Michels, all types of government, not only the aristocracy, end up becoming oligarchic regimes.

He called this natural development the Iron Law of Oligarchy.

When an organization grows increasing the number of members, it becomes impossible to keep the participation of all the members equal.

Successful organizations will always consist of a large mass of followers and a small elite of leaders who are the ones who take the decisions – and benefit from the advantages of the ruling position.