Theme 3:

1. Theme 3: Political system of society

2. Plan 1.The principal characteristics of Political system. 2.Types of political systems.

3. The political system. The state is a particular kind of society, a group sovereign over a specific territory, and the balance of powers manifesting this sovereignty is the political system.

4. Characteristics of the Political system: • open-closed characteristic • group-autonomy characteristic • normative characteristic. • goal characteristic

5. The open-closed characteristic is used broadly to distinguish political systems, as between liberal democracies or polyarchies on the one hand, and dictatorships, autocracies, or totalitarian systems on the other.

6. A measure of this group-autonomy characteristic is the freedom from elite commands and law norms that diverse groups have in their activities.

7. A third characteristic involves the bases of the law norms. These may be traditional, adhering to custom and consensual norms and mores, or they may be positivistic, determined to satisfy a particular need or demand or plan. This is the normative characteristic.

8. The final characteristic defines the interests of the elite. Elite goals generally can be classified as three: maintenance of traditions or backward-looking; representing popular interests or present goals; or reconstructing society, or future oriented. This is the goal characteristic.

9. Pure types of Political systems: • the libertarian political system • the authoritarian political system • the totalitarian political system

10. One type is the libertarian political system, which is an open system, with virtually complete group autonomy, customary law, and present goals. Laws are limited to a few (by virtue of group autonomy and openness) customary principles and rights, with the judiciary limited to matching these principles to concrete cases.

11. Second pure type is the authoritarian political system. It is closed, with authoritative political positions open to only a few by virtue of birth or other ascribed status, and based on customary law. Groups are autonomous so long as they do not try to alter the traditional status quo, and the elite's goals are concerned with conserving traditions.

12. A third pure type is the totalitarian political system. It is closed and customary law is permitted only insofar as it does not interfere with the elite's interests. Law is generally positivist, constructed to satisfy the elite's future oriented goals, and laws are seen as a measure to achieve some reconstruction of society. Groups have no autonomy.

13. Most political systems are a mixture of these types.