Modern and Postmodern Politics

1
Modern and Post-modern Politics

• Lecture 2

2
Outline

• I. Introduction What is the Modern Age?
• II. Modern Politics
• III. Post-Modern Politics

3
Outline

• I. Introduction What is the Modern Age?
• II. Modern Politics
• III. Post-Modern Politics

4
I. What is the Modern Age
I think, therefore, I am.
5
I. What is the Modern Age?

• I think therefore I am
• Begins with I - the individual is central to
  modern thinking
• think - reason is the key to truth or knowledge
  (over faith or revelation)
• therefore I am - deep skepticism over knowledge
  - not even existence is taken for granted but
  must be deduced.

6
I. What is the Modern Age?

• A. Introduction
• 1. Modern (historical defn) 17th-20th Centuries
• Enlightenment (17th -18th centuries)
• Replaced medieval period
• 2. Modern is not simply historical period but
  conceptual distinction between
• Modern societies - governed by reason/laws
• Traditional societies - governed by
  custom/religion

7
I. What is the Modern Age?

• B. General Aspects of Modernity
• 1. Individuals Paramount (Challenge authority)
• 2. Belief in Science (Challenge faith)
• 3. Development of Market (Challenge feudalism)
• 4. Idea of Progress (Challenge tradition)

8
II. Modern Politics

• The Science of Governing
• Politics in the modern era is a science
• State is the sum of its parts (citizens)
• State and citizens are governed by universal laws
• Discover laws through reason (scientific
  inquiry).
• Science means Progress
• Science of Politics Evolves (17th-20th C)

9
II. Modern Politics

• 1. Thomas Hobbes Leviathan

• To make a search into the rights of states and
  duties of subject, it is necessary to apply
  Galileo to politics.
• Deductive Method
• Laws based on deduction
• Break into Component Parts
• Analyze Forces

10
II. Modern Politics

• 2. John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (1689)
• The English Enlightenment
• Empiricism - experiential
• Inductive method - develop principles from
  experience rather than pure deduction
• Reason is key to human progress

11
II. Modern Politics

• 3. Scientific Socialism (19th C)
• Socialism not utopian but scientifically
  predictable based on laws of capital
• Deductive method - first principles through
  deduction
• The materialistic conception of history and the
  revelation of the secret of capitalistic
  production through surplus-valuewith these
  discoveries, socialism became a science. Karl
  Marx

12
II. Modern Politics

• 4. Behavioural Political Science (1960s - today)
• The behavioural approach is rooted in
  scientific modes of investigation and analysis.
• Birth of Political Science as a discipline
• Inductive methodology
• Shift from study of institutions to individuals
• Statistical analysis

13
II. Modern Politics

• 5. Rational or Public Choice Theory (late 20th C)
• Deductive method
• Economic theory applied to political phenomena
• Aggregates individual choices
• Problem of cooperation
• Example Prisoners Dilemma
• The scientific pursuit of micro level
  explanations for aggregate patterns of behaviour
  Booth etal.

14
II. Modern Politics

• B. Two Units of Analysis in Modern Politics
• The Citizen - begin with the individual
• Replaces the subject
• The State - artifice constructed to serve
  individuals
• Replaces the king
• Politics Social contract b/w state (ensure
  security) and citizen (protect rights)

15
III. Post modern politics

• What is meant by terms such as office politics
  or race politics?
• Conceptual change
• Power is everywhere
• Politics goes beyond the state
• Post modern definition Politics is the
  construction of and resistance to power in
  society as a whole.