Political Systems

By Philip Tether

POLITICAL SYSTEMS. This is the second in a series of books on government and politics designed for students and the general reader (see author's other publications for details of all series titles). All the books interlink and cross reference but are designed to stand alone. This second text continues the series with a detailed exploration of political systems: the structures which channel, direct and shape the all-inclusive decision-making activity which is the hall-mark of politics. Think of politics - the ideas, the people and the policies as the ‘software’. Political institutions and structures - what we might conveniently call ‘the apparatus of rule’ - are the hardware. It is helpful to regard these political structures as parts of a ‘political system’ - a complex set of inter-dependent parts processing political inputs from the environment and generating political outputs in the shape of laws and policies. This ‘systemic view’ helps us to understand the inter-relatedness of different parts of the political structure and the role each plays. The text opens with a clear statement of Aims and Learning Outcomes to give clarity and direction to your reading. The subsequent text is then divided into easy-to-read sections on:
The idea of a ‘political system’
Comparative government
The British monarchy
The centre and the periphery
The branches of government
Pluralism
The book concludes with:
Political systems: a summary.
Review questions
References
Throughout, the material is carefully designed to equip the reader with a basic political vocabulary and an appreciation of the significance of politics as an important, pervasive and irreplaceable activity involving us all and the function and significance of political systems.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philip Tether
• Release date: Nov 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311029621

Philip Tether

Philip Tether has taught government and politics for over thirty years at a number of higher education institutions in the UK. During this time he has taught a wide variety of students and supervised many Masters dissertations and PhD theses. He has set and marked government and politics papers for a variety of examination boards. He has published extensively on a variety of political topics with particular emphasis on the politics of health including alcohol and HIV-AIDS and his current research interest is the business – government relationship. Philip Tether enjoys the theatre, cinema and walking the dogs. You will sometimes find him in the garden.

Book preview

AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS

IDEAS, STRUCTURES, PEOPLE AND PLACES

No. 2: POLITICAL SYSTEMS

Copyright 2015 Dr. Philip Tether

Published by Dr. Philip Tether at Smashwords

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POLITICAL SYSTEMS

Dr. Philip Tether

This is No 2 in a series of introductory texts each addressing an aspect of politics. The current and forthcoming title list is shown below. They are free-standing but link together to present a multi-layered analysis of the ideas, structures, people and processes which go to shape the world of politics.

The author has taught government and politics in various higher education institutions for over thirty years. The focus is largely but not exclusively on the United Kingdom (UK). Where appropriate, examples and illustrations are drawn from around the world. The material is designed to be accessible to students at all levels from beginners to university students. ‘Aims,’ ‘Contents’ and ‘Learning Outcomes’ are specified at the start of every text and each concludes with an overview summary and a set of review questions for independent learning.

The current title list includes:

No 1: The Purpose of Politics

No 2: Political Systems

No 3: Popular Democracy

No 4: Liberal Democracy

No 5: Political Ideology and the Liberal Centre

No 6: Political Ideology: Politics on the Right

Forthcoming titles are planned:

No 7: Political Ideology: Politics on the Left

No 8: The Politics of the European Union (EU)

No 9: The politics of Global Governance

No. 2: POLITICAL SYSTEMS

Aims of this text

No. 1 in this series of introductory texts on politics - ‘The Purpose of Politics’ - defined politics as a decision-making activity on behalf of the most inclusive organisations on the face of the earth – nation states. The aim of this text (No. 2) is to explore the structures which channel, direct and shape the all-inclusive decision-making activity which is the hall-mark of politics. Think of politics - the ideas, the people and the policies as the ‘software’.

Political institutions and structures - what we might conveniently call ‘the apparatus of rule’ - are the hardware. It is helpful to regard these political structures as parts of a ‘political system’ - a complex set of inter-dependent parts processing political inputs from the environment and generating political outputs in the shape of laws and policies. This ‘systemic view’ helps us to understand the inter-relatedness of different parts of the political structure and the role each plays.

Learning outcomes

After reading this text you should be able to understand and discuss:

* The idea of a political system, open to its environment and turning inputs into policy outputs.

* The issues involved in comparing, contrasting and categorising political systems.

* The role of the British monarchy and arguments for and against the institution.

* The importance of centre-local relations and the role and structure of local government in the UK and elsewhere.

* The structure and function of the various branches of government – the legislature, the judiciary and the executive.

* The concept of pluralism.

At the end of this text you will find a selection of review questions to test your understanding of these learning outcomes.

Table of Contents

Political Systems - this book series

Aims and Learning Outcomes

The ‘idea’ of politics

Comparative government

The Monarchy

The centre and the periphery

The branches of government

Pluralism

Politics: a summary

Review questions

References

About Dr. Philip Tether

Other books by Dr. Philip Tether

Connect with Dr. Philip Tether

The idea of a ‘political system’

One way of ‘making sense’ of organisations of any kind (including political ones) is to see them as systems. A system - any system - is made up of a number of interdependent, interacting parts or sub-systems. Systems can be mechanical (your car engine or alarm clock), organic (you or a cockroach) or organisational (the Bolivian health service or Marks and Spencer). By focusing our attention on the way parts of an organisation interact to sustain a healthy whole, systems theorising helps us understand how they work, prosper or, sometimes, fail and die.

The approach is derived from biology. The fact that both organisms and organisations contain sub-systems was first noticed in 1951 by the biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffys. In government and politics writers like Easton (1953:1965) have applied systems theory to the study of politics and government and it remains a popular analytical tool. The systems approach focuses attention on the role or functions of different parts of an organisational structure, their relationships and interconnections. Systems can be ‘closed’ or ‘open’. A closed system is self-contained, an open system is located in and interacts with a wider economic, political and social environment.

Organisations which are open systems receive ‘inputs’ such as labour, services and raw material from the environment which are then processed as ‘throughputs’ and turned into desired ‘outputs’ such as manufactured articles, services or other ‘products’ such as students with degrees and government policies. ‘Throughputs’ are processed by and flow between a variety of organisational sub-systems. In commercial organisations these might be sales, marketing and production functions, all linked into a comprehensive system by their own input-throughput-output relationships.

In its simplest form an organisation can be thought of as a system involving an input, a transformation process and an output. Next, organisations do not stand alone, they are part of an economic and social fabric or environment. In other words, since they are part of a larger system, they can never be independent of external forces. They are affected by - and in turn affect - these external forces, so that at the boundaries (of the system) there are several environmental influences at work – economic, political, demographic, technological, legal, competitive.

(Frain 1999: 10).

How can the systems perspective be applied to government and politics? The various parts of a political system, the apparatus of rule, are sub-systems, components or elements of the larger whole. The parts work together in a systemic way performing different but