3 Governing Society: We Know Who You Are

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3Governing SocietyWe Know Who You Are
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Controlling the Behavior of Others

• One of the key differences between realists and
  idealists is the way they view human nature
• Idealists tend to believe that humans are
  basically good and care for others
• Consequently, governments and their leaders
  should be judged by these ideals
• Realists tend to believe that human beings care
  only about maximizing their own self-interests
  and they expect no more from their leaders

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Controlling the Behavior of Others

• The study of how governments need to control
  indidividuals is a realist approach
• When examining politics, this perspective asks
• Who benefits?
• How do they benefit?
• The answers to these two questions will usually
  provide a solid first step toward unraveling the
  political puzzle
• Often, the best line is
• Show me the power.

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Controlling the Behavior of Others

• Regardless of the type of government they head,
  it can be argued that all leaders try to maximize
  their self-interests
• What individual benefits might leaders pursue?
• Power
• Wealth
• Prestige
• The goals might be selfish or altruistic but the
  concept of leadership benefits is a powerful
  explanatory tool

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Leadership Benefits

• The greater the benefits to be gained from the
  leadership position,
• the more willing people are to take risks to take
  over a leadership position,
• and the greater lengths leaders will go to to
  hold on to it

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The Panopticon

• One of the fundamental mechanisms leaders use to
  control large populations is based on the concept
  of the panopticon
• This is based on an 18th c. prison design by
  Jeremy Bentham
• The prisoners could be watched at any time
  but they never know when
  they are being watched

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The Panopticon

• The only way to avoid punishment is to police
  their own actions and serve as their own guards
• Michel Foucault noted that the panoptic control
  of a few guards over hundreds of prisoners is
  similar to how governments control large
  populations

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The Panopticon

• Think of they way traffic laws are enforced
• The vast majority of times there are no police to
  be seen
• However, there always could be a police officer
  around any bend in the road
• Through self-policing, a few hundred policemen
  can control thousands of drivers
• Leaders use this same concept to prevent revolt
  and maintain control

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Collective Action, Revolution, and the Use of
Force

• Government is essentially an institutionalized
  mechanism for collective action
• Revolutions are collective actions with the aim
  of tearing down and replacing the current
  government

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Collective Action, Revolution, and the Use of
Force

• Those at the top of the existing social
  hierarchies are driven by self-interest to
  actively oppose any collective effort to
  overthrow the system.
• They will employ a variety of techniques to
  prevent revolutionary groups from forming

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Atomization

• When people are isolated they are kept from
  forming a group that could threaten a leaders
  hold on power
• At the most extreme, you would want to prevent
  anyone from forming any kind of personal bond
• The two most important mechanisms leaders use to
  accomplish this are
• peer policing
• preference falsification

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Atomization Peer Policing

• Peer policing is having people police each other
• Leaders need to encourage citizens to engage in
  peer policing against potential revolutionaries
• Leaders might make it a crime to not report
  someone elses efforts to form a revolutionary
  group
• This works particularly well if people believe
  that government agents will test individuals
  willingness to turn in others

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Atomization Peer Policing

• Governments and their leaders can handle
  individual isolated revolutionary actions, but
  mass action may overwhelm the governments
  policing and enforcement mechanisms
• Peer policing happens in democracies as well as
  in totalitarian states

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Atomization Preference Falsification

• Preference falsification is hiding they way you
  truly feel while publicly expressing what those
  in power want to hear from you
• As long as peoples true feelings are hidden, how
  can potential revolutionaries even know if there
  are others who share their view?

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Limits on Forceful Control

• The level of force leaders must use to maintain
  control is related to the level of
  dissatisfaction
• When dissatisfaction is low, less force is
  necessary
• When dissatisfaction with unresolved problems
  becomes high enough, desperation may overcome
  fear and force may no longer be enough
• When pushed too far, people will stand up to a
  bully

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Legitimacy and Government Control

• Instead of relying on force, threats, and
  punishments, leaders can maintain control by
  pursuing legitimacy
• Legitimacy is the voluntary acceptance of
  government
• Pursuing a path of legitimacy can be an expensive
  long-term proposition
• It is generally far cheaper in the short-term to
  use force

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Legitimacy and Government Control

• There are many ways that governments can achieve
  or lose legitimacy
• stay in power a long time,
• get the blessing of a legitimate past leader,
• convince people that God sent the leaders to rule
• win popular elections
• Electoral democracies institutionalize revolt by
  giving citizens the power to keep or replace the
  government

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Legitimacy and Conflict Within Groups

• After World War I, researchers believed that
  conflict was something horrible, and that
  conflict should be eradicated
• Georg Simmel and later Lewis Coser pointed out
  that the complete elimination of conflicts could
  be equally bad because conflict serves
  constructive functions

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Legitimacy and Conflict Within Groups

• When engaged in a conflict with another group,
  self-identification with the group increases and
  support for the leadership increases
• Intra-group conflict (conflict within the group)
  can serve as a safety valve for letting off
  frustration

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Cross-cutting Cleavages

• If there are a variety of conflicts, divisions
  over them do not always coincide
• People who disagree on one issue may agree on
  others
• This prevents society from dividing sharply over
  a single issue
• People will be less hostile toward others on one
  issue if they agree on others

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Conflict as a Source of Legitimacy

• Such conflicts facilitate the resolution of the
  underlying cause of disagreement the resolution
  of small issues can keep them from growing into
  large ones
• They also provide a foundation for developing
  compromises
• Resolving conflict within the group enhances the
  publics willingness to voluntarily accept the
  group and its structures
• This enhances the legitimacy of the group and its
  leaders

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Totalitarianism

• Totalitarianism Ideology that espouses the
  complete political, economic, and social control
  of people and institutions by a dictatorial,
  single-party regime.
• Have we always had Totalitarianism?
• No, this a 20th Century phenomenon why?
• Technology creates the communication and
  transportation necessary to manage all aspects of
  life
• Also, growth of ideology as a means of organizing
  a society

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Popular Totalitarianism?

• Why would people allow totalitarianism?
• Their ideological justification comes from the
  state acting on behalf of the people
• Organize the economy so that all have their needs
  met
• Totalitarian regimes are generally popular (at
  least at the beginning)

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Economic Freedom

• Why might a government want to limit economic
  freedoms?
• Prevent Exploitation
• How might this affect the economy of a
  totalitarian regime?
• Command Economies are not very efficient
• If limit economic freedoms, must limit political
  freedoms as well (Maoist China)
• However, can limit political freedom without
  limiting economic freedom (China today)

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Social Freedoms

• What kinds of social freedoms might be limited in
  a totalitarian government?
• enjoy the privacy of your home
• practice the religion of your choice
• believing what you wish
• Why might a government want to limit these
  freedoms?
• How do they threaten the governments ability to
  rule?

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Limited Government

• You are watching television when an "alien" form
  appears on the screen. The alien states that all
  of earth and its inhabitants are now under the
  control of aliens. The alien informs you that all
  forms of communication have been taken over.
• The alien continues with this statement
  "Americans believe rights are important. The
  United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights
  guarantee many rights. As aliens, we are going to
  take away all of your rights except for one."

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Which Right Will You Keep?

• Petition the Government
• Have a Lawyer
• Freedom of Speech
• Freedom of Religion
• Peaceably Assemble
• Freedom of the Press
• Bear Arms
• Trial By Jury
• A Speedy and Public Trial
• Freedom from Unreasonable Searches and Seizures

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Milgram Experiment

• Milgram puts out a newspaper advertisement
  offering male Americans around the vicinity of
  Yale University to participate in a psychology
  experiment about memory and learning. Upon
  arriving at Yale, the participant is introduced
  to a tall, sharp and stern looking experimenter
  (Milgram) wearing a white lab coat. The
  participant is also introduced to a friendly
  co-participant. Milgram explains that the
  experiment investigates punishment in learning,
  and that one will be the "teacher", and one will
  be the "learner." Rigged lots are drawn to
  determine roles.

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Milgram Experiment

• The learner is strapped to a chair, and his arm
  is dotted with electrodes. Milgram instructs the
  teacher to read out word pairs from a list, such
  as "clear" goes with "air", or "dictionary" goes
  with "red". Afterwards, when the teacher says a
  word, the learner must regurgitate the other word
  that goes with the teacher's word. If the learner
  recalls the correct word, we move to the next
  word pair. Otherwise, he is given a voltage
  shock. These shocks increase in amplitude as more
  mistakes are made. However, Milgram says that "no
  permanent tissue damage will occur. Shocks
  start at 15 volts, and grow in 15 volt
  increments.

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Milgram Experiment

• The shock generator has 30 switches, each labeled
  with a voltage ranging from 15 through 450 volts,
  and a verbal rating, ranging from "slight shock"
  to "danger severe shock". The final two switches
  are labeled "XXX".

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Milgram Experiment
The learner responds in the following manner to
the shocks
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Milgram Experiment
As the participant perceives the learner's pain,
his conscience kicks in, and he begins to object
to continuing the experiment. Milgram responds
to these objections in the following way
Question What percentage of participants would
deliver the full 450 volts?
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Milgram Experiment

• Milgram's results were alarming. Of the 40
  teachers he surveyed (the learners were
  confederates of Milgram and were unharmed), 68
  of them ended up delivering the full 450 volt
  treatment. 15 of the 40 ended up convulsing with
  epilepetic laughter. Participants went
  temporarily mad and started tearing their hair
  out. Most amusingly, Milgram actually believed
  that the aforementioned experimental setup was
  the CONTROL case! He did not anticipate that
  subjects would conform at all in these conditions.

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Huxley v. Orwell

• Check out this comic adaptation of the
  introduction to Neil Postmans Amusing Ourselves
  to Death
• Can you think of contemporary examples of both a
  Huxleyan and an Orwellian world?
• With which should we be more concerned?
• How about examples from The Cuckoos Nest?