Political Systems and Social Movements: Key Concepts

Item 4 - Politics: The Art of Directing and Organizing the State

Politics is the art of directing and organizing the polis (the state).

• Rules: They seek to regulate the behavior of human freedom to achieve certain values.
• Institution: Systems organized in society, permanently, which aim to meet certain needs. Examples of institutions are the institution of marriage, unions, etc. Institutions are regulated in turn by norms.
• State and Types: Partnerships with institutions that manage political power. There are three types: slave, feudal, and modern.
• Modern State: It can be defined as a social institution with universal jurisdiction. It is a source of legality, has a monopoly of coercive power, and is sovereign.
• Absolutism: A government system in which the king holds all the power of the state without limitation.

Item 13 - Will: Demands and Needs Within a Society

Will is a set of demands and needs that arise within a society.

• Democracy: First emerged in Athens in the 5th century BC. Etymologically, the term "democracy" means government by the people (demos = people, kratos = government).
• Direct Democracy: Decisions were taken at a meeting of all citizens.
• Representative Democracy: Democracy in which decisions are made by "representatives" of the people.
• Liberalism: A political, economic, and social doctrine that supports individual freedom and rejects state intervention in civil matters.
• Separation of Powers: The political principle according to which the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the state should be separate as independent powers, so there can be a system of checks and balances to limit the powers of government and protect individual rights.
• Union: Organizations with the aim of fighting for the interests of workers.
• Anarchism: A movement fighting not only against economic inequalities but also against the state and all forms of power.
• Centralized Socialism: A social movement against economic inequality as a result of economic liberalism.
• Utopian Socialism: A series of political and economic proposals characterized by trying to reform the social system based on good intentions.
• Communism: A movement characterized by a strict defense of economic equality. To achieve this, it advocates for the community of goods.
• Social Democracy: A doctrine of the moderate socialist parties, which postulates reformism within a liberal and parliamentary democracy.

Item 14 - Citizenship: A Conquest of Modern States

Citizenship, understood in the sense that it does not discriminate against any group of people, is a conquest of modern democratic states, which have been imposed against absolute monarchy and authoritarian or totalitarian conceptions against liberal power.

• Natural Law: Rights supposed human beings would have simply by existing. These rights derive from human nature, and men could recognize such rights through the exercise of reason.
• Positive Law: The law developed, conventionally, by man over the course of history.
• The Law of Nations: Vitoria presented it as a right in between natural law and positive law. It also has a claim to be true for all men. In the law of nations lies what is good about getting something else.