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Political Concept

09.48 |

As Aristotle said, human is zoon politikon (political being). It means that human's social life will always be colored by rules and regulations. Etymologically, the word 'politic' comes from Greek polis which means city. People who stays in the polis called polites or citizen, while the word politikos means citizenship. The word politic itself has a lot of definition, depends on the definition maker. But the basic concept of politic can be related to the state, power, decision making, public policy, distribution, and allocation.

Socrates
Socrates was a philosopher from Athens. According to him, politic is a science that talks about public good, which is the ideal structure about justice. In his concept, thoughts, and practices, Socrates tries hard to be a good, fair, and rational politician. But his wish and political tendency lead him to death sentence instead.
On the other side, Socrates explains an ethic with moral as its core, where people know about life and wide knowledge. This will later grow the sense of rationalism as the form of Socrates political theory.


 Plato
Plato was a philosopher and mathematician from Greece, which was also the student of Socrates. His most famous masterpiece was 'Republik' in where he writes his view of the 'ideal' state.
Plato's teaching about ethics was more or less says that human in their lives has good life goals, and this good life goals can be achieved inside the polis. Plato never doubt his that human is social being, therefore human in nature lives inside the polis or state.
According to Plato, the state is formed based on the economic interest among the citizens which lead to job specialization, since not everyone can do every job in a time. This polis or state is made possible by territorial development because of population and needs increasing which enable the war in the expansion.

Both from Socrates' and Plato's point of view, the kind of state being told is the 'ideal' state. This might mean that the state being told by them might not be the same as the 'real' state.

Case example of this political concept is:

SENEGAL - DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE FACT SHEET

Senegal has a reputation of being one of the few stable democracies in West Africa. This perception was confirmed by the recent 2012 elections marked by the third peaceful transition of power from one president to the other – two of which took place following credible democratic elections. This trend in governance presents an excellent window of opportunity to address core challenges to the country’s progress on democratic and economic governance over the past decade. U.S. assistance supports decentralization and development at the local level, promoting government-wide transparency and accountability, institutionalizing electoral and political processes, and supporting social stability in the restive Casamance region.

GOVERNANCE AND PEACE PROGRAM (USAID/PGP)

This four-and-a-half-year project, scheduled to run through 2014, focuses on enhancing democracy, good governance and national reconciliation. The project’s objectives are to increase transparency and accountability; improve fiscal decentralization to local governments; increase civic participation in the electoral process; and support social stability in the Casamance. USAID/PGP supports efforts for increased fiscal decentralization following a leading role in promoting the free and credible 2012 elections through projects empowering civil society to widely observe the elections, supporting national elections bodies, and strengthening political party coalitions. The project addresses national reconciliation by supporting local communities and civil society in their efforts to resolve issues of social stability and local governance in the Casamance region.

WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP AND CIVIC JOURNALISM

The Women's Leadership and Civic Journalism project promotes women’s leadership at the community level by increasing the presence of women in local media in the Thiès and Diourbel regions. The project recently expanded following a successful pilot stage in collaboration with radio Guindiku FM, started by ARLS (a women’s organization). The program supports Guindiku FM, which reaches over 400,000 people over a 50-kilometer radius and is a vibrant source of information for local communities. Guindiku FM features programming on women’s issues, health, education, political participation, human rights, and entertainment. Programs are created and presented by women, feature interviews with women leaders and portray women in a way that encourages leadership roles in their communities. The second phase of the program will allow a greater depth of capacity building for women reporters, ARLS staff, radio staff, and Community Based Organization (CBO) members to help them more effectively advocate (through radio programming and community-based activities of listening groups) for increased roles for women in community decision-making while addressing the underlying barriers that often keep women from these roles.

DIALOGUE, COMMUNITY AND TRANS-BORDER RECONCILIATION (DIRECT)

This two-year peace-building project supports conflict mitigation and reconciliation in the Casamance region of Senegal along the border of Guinea-Bissau. The project is based on the people-to-people approach. It targets communities through dialogue, cultural exchanges, and mediation activities, which promote community reconciliation and local populations’ participation in the Casamance conflict resolution process.

STRENGTHENING COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEACE AND EQUALITY (SCOPE)

The project helps communities inclusively resolve local natural resource conflicts, which can play a critical role in community cohesion in the Casamance, to improve their capacity to effectively participate in a Casamance peace process. The project will increase and enhance citizen participation – particularly marginalized groups such as women and youth – in identifying and addressing root causes of the conflict.

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT (PROCAP)

A follow-up to the successful elections observation project in 2012, PROCAP provides capacity-building assistance to help nonpartisan civil society organizations replicate and integrate the tools and technologies introduced in the earlier initiative. The program supports NGO-3D and its partner organizations within the Collectif des Organizations de la Societé pour les Elections that contributed to managing and implementing the observation program to enable USAID to better assist in managing future elections observation activities.

PARLIAMENTARIAN ASSISTANCE AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT (PACE)

Thanks to the introduction of the new gender parity law, 46 percent of the legislators elected in the July 2012 legislative elections are women. While the parity law provides women with a unique opportunity to help reshape public opinion of their role in society, there is significant pressure for them to prove that they are capable of effectively leading, influencing public policy, and helping remove barriers to women’s electoral and political participation. USAID will support the strengthening of the National Assembly through a new 18-month project awarded to a local organization (NGO 3D) on behalf of a consortium of local and international organizations.
The project aims at promoting reforms that are conducive to sustainable democratic governance through capacity building for members of the National Assembly and better citizen participation in the decision-making processes, and law making and implementation. The project is divided in two components including legislative assistance through capacity building and logistic support, and civic engagement such as advocacy for political reforms, trainings on interaction with civic groups.
Source: http://www.usaid.gov/senegal/newsroom/fact-sheets/senegal-democracy-and-governance-fact-sheet

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Sovereignty (IPS)

08.21 |

Sovereignty, in political science, can also be defined as the ultimate authority. Derived from the Latin term superanus through the French term souveraineté, sovereignty was originally meant to be the equivalent of supreme power. But as time goes through, the definition shifted bit by bit until eventually, the concept of sovereignty becomes a controversial matter. The concept, being controversial as it is, is closely related to the difficult and varied concept of state, government, independence, and democracy. 

Thomas Hobbes 
One of those people who gave their thought about sovereignty was Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes was a philosopher which was born on Malmesbury, which is in Wiltshire, England, about 30 miles east of Bristol. Even though he is widely known mostly for his political philosophies, his thoughts are not only limited to politics, but also extends to other fields such as religion, physiology, math, physics, etc
In his political view, Hobbes describes state as a big, scary giant that legitimates himself just because he has the ability to "threaten" the people. The reason why Hobbes describes state as such is because at his time, the form of governance exist was absolute governance. Beside that, according to Hobbes, basically human has same basic character such as appetite, interest, and aversion. And the government at that time was held by king, which is also a human. Hobbes won't approve this arbitrariness, because he wants to base the state to something unwavering.
The fruit of his thoughts is what's called by social contract. At first, he thinks of the state of nature, where there is no supreme power that can discipline the people. He then concludes that the state of nature is the state of war. To prevent this war state, a contract must be made. To be able to ensure security, stability, and welfare, the people must give their right to several people or institute. These people or institute are the ones who hold the full sovereignty in the state. The holder of the sovereignty has the right to rule and ensure the safety of the ruled. But on the other side, the people as the ones who give their rights, don't have any more rights to take it back since that is the most sensible decision they can make to be detached from the on-going war. So, Hobbes' social contract is not a contract between the ruler and the ruled, but a contract to end the state of nature, done by the naturally isolated and anti-social individuals, the unity of the individuals in the social contract is not the source of sovereignty but the consequence of sovereignty.

Immanuel Kant
Another philosopher that gives his thought to the concept of sovereignty is Immanuel Kant. Kant was born on Konigsberg, 1724. At his young age, Kant studied philosophy, math, and science. 
And Kant, as a natural science undergraduate, welcome the opinion saying that the state is formed by the social contract. And same with Rosseau, Kant also states that the sovereignty is in the hand of the people, and the general will is formed into the state regulations.
What differentiate Kant's social contract with the others' is that Kant has the view that without a state, humans will not bound to the rules and regulations that were made, and the state itself is bunches of human bound to the rules and regulations because of the act of state is justified. In other words, Kant acknowledges that in the society, the rules and regulations are needed. And in doing the rules and regulations, the society must be under the shade of a state.
Also, another thing that differentiate Kant's social contract with the others' is that Kant's contract is not really a 'contract', but a juridic construction that might help people in explaining how the state was made, how was it existed, how was the power in it, and how was the character.


The most apparent difference between Hobbes' and Kant's social contract is that Hobbes truly believes that the people really make a contract which submit their right of sovereignty to the governance, while Kant believes that the contract is made in the form of juridic construction.


Case example of sovereignty is:
The Court begins by recalling the complex historical background of the dispute between the Parties.  It then examines the titles invoked by them.  Indonesia's claim to sovereignty over the islands is based primarily on a conventional title, the 1891 Convention between Great Britain and the Netherlands. Indonesia, thus, maintains that that Convention established the 4° 10' north parallel of latitude as the dividing line between the British and Dutch possessions in the area where Ligitan and Sipadan are situated.  As the disputed islands lie to the south of that parallel, "[i]t therefore follows that under the Convention title to those islands vested in the Netherlands, and now vests in Indonesia".  Malaysia, for its part, asserts that the 1891 Convention, when seen as a whole, clearly shows that Great Britain and the Netherlands sought by the Convention solely to clarify the boundary between their respective land possessions on the islands of Borneo and Sebatik, since the line of delimitation stops at the easternmost point of the latter island. Having found that neither of the Parties has a treaty-based title to Ligitan and Sipadan, the Court next considers the question whether Indonesia or Malaysia could hold title to the disputed islands by virtue of the effectivités cited by them.  In this regard, the Court determines whether the Parties' claims to sovereignty are based on activities evidencing an actual, continued exercise of authority over the islands, i.e., the intention and will to act as sovereign. Indonesia cites in this regard a continuous presence of the Dutch and Indonesian navies in the vicinity of Ligitan and Sipadan.  It adds that Indonesian fishermen have traditionally used the waters around the islands.  In respect of the first of these arguments, it is the opinion of the Court that "it cannot be deduced [from the facts relied upon in the present proceedings] that the naval authorities concerned considered Ligitan and Sipadan and the surrounding waters to be under the sovereignty of the Netherlands or Indonesia".  As for the second argument, the Court considers that "activities by private persons cannot be seen as effectivités if they do not take place on the basis of official regulations or under governmental authority". The Court concludes, on the basis of the effectivités referred to above, that "sovereignty over Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan belongs to Malaysia". (source: http://www.un.org/press/en/2002/ICJ605.doc.htm)

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(IPS) (Outline)

01.03 |

Sovereignty
Short opening

Thomas Hobbes
Short introduction
General view of politics and philosophy
Theory about sovereignty
Case example

Immanuel Kant
Short introduction
General view of politics and philosophy
Theory about sovereignty
Case example

Comparison between Hobbes’ views of sovereignty with Kant’s

Case example comparison




Political Concept

Short opening

Socrates 
Short introduction
Philosophical view
Political view related to philosophical view 
Concept of ideal state
Case example


Plato
Short introduction
Developing of Socrates' philosophical view
Political view in relation to Socrates' political view
Further development of state concept
Case example


Conclusion

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Power and National Interest

01.21 |



POWER
Power is a quite common word. Almost in everyday of our life, we hear that particular word. One might find it in many aspects, for example physics, and politics.
Beside being a common word, power is also a complex word. Many of the scientists have their own definition of power. Some of them are:
1.      According to Weber, power is the ability of an individual or group to achieve their own goals or aims when others are trying to prevent them from realising them.
2.      Power is the ability of its holder to make other individuals obedient on whatever basis in some social relationship. In Foucault’s theory, power is not only limited as physical force and headed through a single direction, but working in relation, creating counterforces.
According to him:
·         Power is not a thing but a relation
·         Power is not simply repressive but it is productive.
·         Power is not only belongs to the state, nor it is only had by the government.
·         Power is exercised and present in every level of social body.
·         The exercise of power is strategic and war-like.

But initially, the core definition of power itself is the ability or capability to influence other parties to do a certain thing in order to reach particular goal or outcome.

Based on its form, power can be differenciated into three:
1.      Soft power
According to Joseph Nye, soft power is the ability to attract others because of the legitimacy of the state’s values or policy.
The basic concept of the soft power is persuasion and negotiation. This form of power has the principal of no force or coercion. It can be in the form of culture, academic exchange, etc.
2.      Hard power
While the soft power is concentrated on cultural and academical aspect, the hard power is concentrated on military and economical aspect. The power known by most of common people is hard power. The exercise of this hard power can be seen through wars, invasions, sanctions, etc. Contrary to the soft power, hard power often times uses force and coercion.
3.      Smart power
Smart power is the kind of power that combines the other two forms of power, which are soft and hard power.
Smart power comes from the understanding that soft power is not necessarily better of more important than the hard power. From that understanding, Joseph Nye, Jr. stated that to create an effective strategy, one must combine the hard power with soft power.



NATIONAL INTEREST

National interest is often regarded as a mere agregation of particular interest or the most dominant or active interest, even though they are the minority – considered either asthe proportion of persons or cooperations involved or as the proportion of capital measured by pecuniary standards. (Beard 1935: 156)

In simpler words, one can understand the concept of national interest as the ambition, goal, or wish of a state, wether it is economic, cultural, politic, security, etc.

States, in several aspects is like individuals. Not every need of the people can be found in the state, thus the state must form a relation with another state. The form of relation can be a cooperation, colonialism, or open competition. To achieve its need, which in this case is relation, one state must have enough power.

For example, to achieve a cooperation, one state must have soft power since to achieve that cooperation the states must go through a negotiation.  In another case, if one state chooses to colonialize another state, then the state must have enough hard power since to achieve the colonialism the state must go through military way.

Case example of the relation between power and national interest is the case of Shrouded in Mystery, New Bomber Makes Waves.

In late spring or early summer, the US Air Force will decide who will build its next-generation bomber. Yet, despite all the hype and public interest, the program remains shrouded in mystery.
The Long Range Strike-Bomber (LRS-B) program is stealthy, literally and figuratively. Few details are actually known about the bomber's capabilities or design. But the program's impact is already being widely felt throughout the Pentagon and its industry partners.
At the annual Air Force Association conference last September, Northrop Grumman hung a major ad for its LRS-B program.(Photo: Aaron Mehta/Staff)
The half a dozen analysts and experts interviewed by Defense News for this piece all agree on one thing: the LRS-B has the chance to shape American military aerospace for the next 20 years. Whichever competitor wins will reap a windfall of development money; the loser could find itself out of the military attack airframe business entirely.
And while the program appears to be on track, Congress is waiting in the wings for any sign of cost overrun or technological problems.
"This is crunch time," said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the Teal Group. "It's the biggest single outstanding DoD competition by a very wide margin. That makes it important in and of itself."


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