Lecture
4. CONCEPT "POLITICAL SYSTEM", ITS STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS
The concept of "system", borrowed by sociologists from biological theory, was very useful to political scientists, since the political system, like a living organism, consists of interdependent parts, and to understand what an organization is as a whole, it is necessary to study the complex interaction of these elements. This is a whole complex of political, public organizations and institutions, ideologies, norms and traditions.
4.1. Elements of the political system
It is obvious that the first necessary component in this complex are citizens, the totality of people constituting a political community, whose members stand at different levels of the social organism, belong to different associations and represent the basis of any system, the driving force of other political institutions.
The concept of "political system" allows you to bring together the main institutions, which include citizens engaged in political activities.
The political system is one of the systems of society, along with the economic, social and spiritual. What distinguishes the political system from other systems of society?
The first is the supremacy of the political system. With its help, political power is exercised in society, and decisions made within its framework are binding for the whole society and each of its subsystems.
The second is its conditionality by the social environment, first of all, by the socio-economic structure of society.
The third feature of the political system is relative independence, determined by the presence of a special mechanism of structures, roles, functions of groups. The political system is largely formalized, since relations within its framework, as a rule, are governed by special rules - legal and political. These features are filled with specific content in a particular socio-economic environment, at each given historical stage of development.
From signs should distinguish the main functions of the political system . These include:
Defining the goals and objectives of society, as well as the mobilization of resources for their implementation, constitute the main function of the political system, while integration and legitimization are both a function of the political system and other subsystems of society, in particular the spiritual one.
The political system is an education that ensures the existence of society as a single organism, centrally controlled by political power . Inside this organism, it seems appropriate to distinguish four subsystems depending on their role and the function performed:
Elements of the political system can be considered such institutions of social life, groups, norms, functions, which are in close cooperation with political management. From the point of view of the roles and functions performed by one or another element of the political system, it is possible to distinguish monofunctional elements, i.e. those that perform an exclusively political function (parties), and multifunctional , for which a political function is only one of many, but nonetheless occupies a significant place (public organizations, creative associations). Finally, it should be noted that there are episodic political functions or interaction among those institutions, organizations or groups for which politics is not an important substantive element.
The political aspects of activity are inherent in almost all modern institutions, communities and individuals. But the political system as its elements includes only those institutions for which such activity represents an essential characteristic .
There are several theoretical schemes explaining the functioning of political systems.
Almond proposed a rather broad scheme of comparative analysis of political systems, dissatisfied with the fact that most political scientists focused mainly on comparing the constitutional and essential features of Western countries and that as a result of this approach, many important and interesting features of the political process in other countries remain out of sight of researchers.
First of all, he tried to find an answer to this question: which political structures and procedures are common to all countries, whether developed or developing states. This is a logical question that allows you to identify the main thing in any activity of the state. Responding to it, Almond formulated the following main functions of state power.
Internal functions :
External functions :
The next question that the researcher faced was this: how do the states perform these functions? With what structures? The approach to the analysis of political phenomena, proposed by Almond, is not by chance called in political science a structural-functional approach .
In Western political science published many studies of political life, based on the wide application of this particular approach.
However, it should be said that in Western political science, many researchers do not share this approach. In particular, some scientists proceed from the fact that the main subject of study in political science should be only functions - the most important and most essential features of any political system. As for the structures, they, according to this group of scientists, are predetermined by functions.
Something similar to the functional-structural approach of Almond appeared in the study of political processes - the system model of David Aston . Estonian considers such a problem in his writings: comparing political systems, is it possible to compare not only state structures, but also public organizations? Say, is it possible to compare the Labor Party of Great Britain with the French Socialist Party or the US state of California with the West German state of Bavaria, etc.?
The problem here is that some states, such as Monaco, Liechtenstein or Lebanon, although they are independent states, actually have less autonomy, less resources, less developed political structure than, say, Texas in the US or North Ireland, or the canton of Zurich in Switzerland, and even any international concern.
Eston is very flexible in its approach. He defines politics as the “power distribution of values” within a political system.
The people involved in such a distribution form various structures and institutions that are engaged in putting forward demands, preparing and publicizing decisions, providing feedback between the authorities and the population, as well as providing the necessary support for the decisions of the authorities. All this activity constitutes a political process . Obviously, it is quite possible to talk about the political process and in connection with the activities of the United Nations, the European Community, and analyzing the political life within those or other states. Moreover, the political process is developing not only at the social and state level, but also within other structures. For example, it is quite possible to study political processes at the level of city and district Soviets, in local governments, in public organizations and political parties.
In a political system, be it a state or a city council, a local branch of a political party, or an environmental movement, people have different demands that they would like to meet. As a rule, these people are denoted by the term "public".
Strictly speaking, this term does not mean the entire population of a country, but only citizens who have political rights and are organized to express their interests. In South Africa, for example, black Africans were deprived of these rights for a long time, although they constituted the majority of the population and strongly supported their claims and interests. In a number of states, some castes, tribes, and even entire classes are deprived of political rights. For example, in Soviet Russia, such restrictions affected hundreds of thousands of people - representatives of the bourgeoisie, some strata of the intelligentsia, the peasantry, etc. In the majority of states, citizens of foreign origin who are not citizens of the respective country are deprived of political rights. In a political party, only registered members enjoy the rights.
The concept of "public demand" includes publicly announced wishes for the adoption of certain political decisions. Such requirements may include appeals, such as tax cuts, unilateral nuclear disarmament, improved medical care, etc. If we are talking about trade unions, then there it is quite possible to expect appeals, say, for strikes, in order to improve working conditions and increase salaries. In the church, such a political demand would be to allow women to be priests, etc.
In complex or large organizations that cannot assemble all their members in one place, intermediary organizations are created to form and put forward political demands, acting on behalf of all or part of the members of these large organizations. One of the most important tasks of such intermediary organizations is a thorough analysis of the entire diversity of the demands of the broad masses of the people and the formulation on this basis of specific political problems that can and should be solved by the efforts of the authorities. The most graphic example of such analytical work and the formation of political slogans are party congresses, which put forward specific tasks of political work on the basis of numerous resolutions and other documents of local party organizations. Usually these slogans are contained in numerous documents of the congresses: resolutions, statements, program documents prepared for participation in elections.
Groups of people, institutions that are able, have the ability to implement decision-making in public life, are called power. In a political party, it can be an executive or central committee, a leader. In the state, such functions are performed by the legislature, the government headed by the president or the prime minister. For a city, such authority is the city council, and its committees, etc. The authorities first consider the political problems put forward, determine priorities, discuss these problems and accept the solutions necessary for their settlement. The forms of these decisions can be very different: decrees and decrees, laws, decrees, etc.
Broad familiarization of the masses with the political decisions of the authorities and the results of their activities is called feedback. This is usually achieved by using information in newspapers, on radio and television, announcements on information boards, letters to interested individuals and organizations, etc. Such feedback inevitably generates new demands, and the political cycle begins anew.
Of course, political systems are not immutable or immortal. They change, unite, divide and even disappear. Their ability to cope with a wide range of diverse requirements, to adapt to changing circumstances both domestically and internationally is ultimately determined not only by their own capabilities, but, above all, by the level of public support. Such support may manifest in various forms.
The existence or lack of government support can be judged by public opinion polls, election results or, in totalitarian regimes, by the number of incidents that violate public order, by the number of refusals to obey the authorities and civil disobedience actions, finally, by the scale of repressive actions of the authorities, dispersing rallies, demonstrations, political organizations and their press. In democracies, the most accurate indicator of popular support for the authorities is usually the general election. Various plots and "palace revolutions" testify to the absence of such support in totalitarian regimes. In order to be sustainable and effective, the political system must strive to avoid losing confidence among the masses. Winning voter support through various intermediary organizations, in turn, requires the authorities to constantly search for new forms and methods of working with the masses: here, identifying requirements, formulating problems, and feedback the government with public opinion, and much more.
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Political science
Terms: Political science