Political Power: The Exercise of Political Power

What Political Power: The Exercise of Political Power covers

Political Power: The Exercise of Political Power is examined in Unit A2 2 Option A, Political Power — taken instead of Political Ideas. It covers power, authority and influence, legitimacy and the grounds of obedience, social, economic, religious and international factors in legitimacy, creating and maintaining legitimacy across political systems, coercion and its effectiveness, dictatorship, authoritarianism and oligarchy, the nature and effectiveness of authoritarian rule, democracy and democratic legitimacy, human and civil rights and state survival and state collapse.

The 10 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Power, authority and influencePolitical power, three types of authority identified by Max Weber and what Weber meant by traditional authority.Open →
• Legitimacy and the grounds of obedienceLegitimation crisis, how elections confer legitimacy and performance legitimacy.Open →
• Social, economic, religious and international factors in legitimacyHow political socialisation supports legitimacy, how economic crisis threatens legitimacy and how religion can be used to legitimise political authority.Open →
• Creating and maintaining legitimacy across political systemsElectoral authoritarianism and role of national symbols and public ritual in maintaining legitimacy.Open →
• Coercion and its effectivenessFour instruments of coercion available to a state, difference between coercion and legitimate law enforcement and dictator's dilemma.Open →
• Dictatorship, authoritarianism and oligarchyOriginal Roman meaning of a dictator, personalist regime and military junta.Open →
• The nature and effectiveness of authoritarian ruleClaim that authoritarian rule is decisive, argument that authoritarian governments can plan for the long term and authoritarian bargain.Open →
• Democracy and democratic legitimacyLiberal democracy, four features of consociational democracy identified by Arend Lijphart and tension between majority rule and minority rights.Open →
• Human and civil rightsHuman rights, civil rights and natural rights.Open →
• State survival and state collapseFailed state, resource curse and three examples of state collapse or near-collapse and their triggers.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Political Power: The Exercise of Political Power further

The same content, four other ways.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is meant by political power?

   Model answer

   Political power is the ability to make others act as you wish, whether or not they would have chosen to. Political power is exercised over the decisions and behaviour of a whole community rather than over private matters.

2. 2

   How did Robert Dahl define power in his 1957 article on the concept?

   Model answer

   Dahl defined power as A having power over B to the extent that A can get B to do something B would not otherwise do. The definition makes power a relationship rather than a possession.

3. 3

   Distinguish power from authority.

   Model answer

   Power is the capacity to secure compliance by any means, including threats. Authority is the recognised right to exercise power, so those subject to it obey willingly.

4. 4

   What is influence, and how does it differ from power?

   Model answer

   Influence is the ability to shape a decision without holding the right or the capacity to take it. Lobbyists, senior civil servants and newspaper editors exercise influence rather than formal power.

5. 5

   Name the three types of authority identified by Max Weber.

   Model answer

   Weber identified traditional authority, charismatic authority and legal-rational authority.

6. 6

   Explain what Weber meant by traditional authority.

   Model answer

   Traditional authority rests on long-established custom and on the belief that things have always been done in this way. Hereditary monarchy is the standard example.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Political Power: The Exercise of Political Power revision questions

What does Political Power: The Exercise of Political Power cover in CCEA A-Level Government and Politics?

10 subtopics: power, authority and influence, legitimacy and the grounds of obedience, social, economic, religious and international factors in legitimacy, creating and maintaining legitimacy across political systems, coercion and its effectiveness, dictatorship, authoritarianism and oligarchy, the nature and effectiveness of authoritarian rule, democracy and democratic legitimacy, human and civil rights and state survival and state collapse. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Political Power: The Exercise of Political Power organised?

By the CCEA 4830 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.