In political science, sovereignty means final authority. A sovereign state claims the right to rule itself. It claims authority over its territory, population, laws, borders, institutions, and political decisions. A sovereign state is not supposed to be ruled by another state or outside power.
4.2 Sovereignty: Who Has Final Authority? Read More »
A state is one of the most important concepts in political science. People often use the words state, government, nation, and country as if they all mean the same thing. In political science, these words are related, but they do not mean exactly the same thing. A state is a political organization that claims authority over a specific territory and population. It has institutions, laws, leaders, courts, police, military forces, and administrative systems that allow it to govern.
4.1 What Is the State? Read More »
Module 4 explains the concepts of the state, sovereignty, and legitimacy, and shows why they are central to understanding political power. It defines the state as the larger political structure that governs a territory and population through institutions such as laws, courts, police, and military forces, while distinguishing it from the government, which is only the group currently running the state. The module also explains sovereignty as final authority, both inside a state and in relation to outside powers, and legitimacy as the belief that a government’s rule is rightful and should be accepted.
4.0 Political Science Module 4: The State, Sovereignty, and Legitimacy Read More »
A structural theory of power looks beyond individual choices and asks how systems shape people’s lives. Marxism focused especially on economics, class, ownership, and labor. Later structural theories applied similar kinds of analysis to other areas of society. For example, elite theory studies how small groups of powerful people can dominate politics, business, media, and institutions.
3.10 Modern Structural Theories of Power Read More »
Karl Marx died in 1883, before the major communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Thus, Marxism did not become a governing system directly through Marx himself. It became a revolutionary political movement through later leaders, especially Vladimir Lenin.
3.9 Vladimir Lenin: How Marxism Became a Revolution Read More »
The words socialism, state socialism, and communism are sometimes used as if they mean the same thing. Although they are related, they refer to different ideas. Socialism is the broadest term. It is the idea that the means of production (land, factories, machines, businesses, technology, and resources used to produce goods and wealth) should be owned or controlled socially rather than privately by a small capitalist class.
3.8 Socialism, State Socialism, and Communism Read More »
For Marx, the central conflict in capitalism is the conflict between owners and workers. Marx described this as the struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie are the capitalist class who own the means of production: factories, land, machines, businesses, tools, technology, and capital. The proletariat are the working class who do not own the means of production and must sell their labor in order to survive.
3.7 Class, Alienation, and the Conflict Between Owners and Workers Read More »
In Marxism, dialectical materialism is the idea that history and society develop through conflict, contradiction, and change within the material world. The phrase can be broken into two parts: (1) dialectical and (2) materialism.
3.6 Dialectical Materialism Explained Read More »
Historical materialism is one of the central theories of Marxism about how history develops. In simple terms, historical materialism argues that history is shaped largely by material conditions: how people produce food, shelter, tools, wealth, and resources; how labor is organized; and who controls the means of production.
3.5 Historical Materialism Explained Read More »
A mode of production is one of the most important building blocks of Marxist theory. In simple terms, a mode of production is the way a society organizes the production of goods and resources. It describes how people get food, build shelter, make tools, produce wealth, and organize labor.
3.4 What Is a Mode of Production? Read More »
