Responsibility and the Official: Forms and Ambiguities

AMBIGUITIES OF MEANING ARISE IN ALMOST ANY DISCUSSION OF comparative politics. In talk about the political responsibility of public officials it seems even harder than usual to be sure that one is not slipping from one meaning of responsibility to another oneself, harder yet to be sure that others are talkin about the same thing. Responsibility is a term used in politics, philosophy and law, and though there may be links between, for example, the debate about free will and individual responsibility and certain legal concepts, the philosophers' and the lawyers' discourse is quite different. The study of politics, for its part, involves many disciplines. Here, among other things, we may find ourselves concerned with the broad ideological and constitutional principles upon which the political system rests, with an institutional examination of the machinery of government, with the laws that regulate administrative practice, with the beliefs and behaviour patterns of administrators, and with broader philosophical questions about the nature of ‘good’ government. Given these different approaches, the word responsibility is bound to be used in a variety of senses and, within each, because our vocabulary is not legislated for us, there are bound to be shades of meaning that vary with the user.

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the presidential and the semi-presidential system

10.21928/uhdicdial.pp152-163 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Peshraw Mohammed Ameen

Keyword(s):

Political System ◽

The United States ◽

Realistic Model ◽

The Political ◽

Kurdistan Region ◽

Political Responsibility ◽

Parliamentary System ◽

Head Of State ◽

Presidential System ◽

The Government

In this research we dealt with the aspects of the presidential system and the semi-presidential system, and he problematic of the political system in the Kurdistan Region. Mainly The presidential system has stabilized in many important countries, and the semi-presidential concept is a new concept that can be considered a mixture of parliamentary and presidential principles. One of the features of a semi-presidential system is that the elected president is accountable to parliament. The main player is the president who is elected in direct or indirect general elections. And the United States is a model for the presidential system, and France is the most realistic model for implementing the semi-presidential system. The French political system, which lived a long period under the traditional parliamentary system, introduced new adjustments in the power structure by strengthening the powers of the executive authority vis-à-vis Parliament, and expanding the powers of the President of the Republic. In exchange for the government while remaining far from bearing political responsibility, and therefore it can be said that the French system has overcome the elements of the presidential system in terms of objectivity and retains the elements of the parliamentary system in terms of formality, so it deserves to be called the semi-presidential system. Then the political system in the Kurdistan Region is not a complete parliamentary system, and it is not a presidential system in light of the presence of a parliament with powers. Therefore, the semi-presidential system is the most appropriate political system for this region, where disputes are resolved over the authority of both the parliament and the regional president, and a political system is built stable. And that because The presence of a parliamentary majority, which supports a government based on a strategic and stable party coalition, which is one of the current problems in the Kurdistan region. This dilemma can be solved through the semi-presidential system. And in another hand The impartiality of the head of state in the relationship with the government and parliament. The head of state, with some relations with the government, can participate in legislative competencies with Parliament.

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Who Are the Technocrats? From the Technostructure to Technocratic Government

The New Technocracy ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781529200874.003.0003 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 53-78

Author(s):

Anders Esmark

Keyword(s):

Comparative Politics ◽

Political System ◽

Political Influence ◽

General Idea ◽

The Political ◽

Rare Occurrence ◽

Organizational Sociology

The chapter deals with the issue of how to identify technocrats outside and within the political system and determine the nature and extent of political influence. Drawing on organizational sociology, elite research and comparative politics, the chapter maps the available answers, from the most general idea of the ‘technostructure’ to the specific (and rare) occurrence of a fully technocratic government.

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Just Hierarchy between Citizens

Just Hierarchy ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691200897.003.0003 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 66-105

Author(s):

Daniel A. Bell ◽

Wang Pei

Keyword(s):

Soft Power ◽

Political System ◽

Large Scale ◽

Political Community ◽

The Political ◽

Public Officials ◽

Willingness To Serve ◽

Political Communities ◽

Political Meritocracy ◽

China Today

This chapter turns to just hierarchies between citizens—mainly strangers to one another—in modern large-scale political communities. It argues that hierarchies between rulers and ruled in such communities are justified if the political system selects and promotes public officials with above-average ability and a willingness to serve the political community over and above their own private and family interests. The chapter demonstrates that this kind of ideal—the “political meritocracy”—helped to inspire the imperial political system in China's past and Chinese political reformers in the early twentieth century, and may help to justify the political system in China today. However, the meritocratic system needs to be accompanied by democratic mechanisms short of competitive elections at the top that allow citizens to show that they trust their rulers and provide a measure of accountability at different levels of government. In the Chinese context, however, there is a large gap between the ideal and the reality. Thus, this chapter recommends that a judicious mixture of Confucian-style “soft power” combined with democratic openness, Maoist-style mass line, and Daoist-style skepticism about the whole political system can help to reinvigorate political meritocracy in China.

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Almond’s Concept of ‘The Political System’: A Textual Critique

Government and Opposition ◽

10.1111/j.1477-7053.1970.tb00490.x ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 3-21 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

S. E. Finer

Keyword(s):

Comparative Politics ◽

Political Development ◽

Political System ◽

The Political ◽

System A ◽

The Right

THIS ARTICLE IS A TEXTUAL EXAMINATION OF ALMOND'S CONCEPT OF the ‘political system’, as adumbrated in his Politics of the Developing Areas and developed in his latest book, Comparative Politics. It is concerned only with this concept; others, such as his notion of ‘political development’ have been left aside.There is at least one contribution which Almond has made to which I wish to pay full tribute: that is, his checklist of ‘functions’ which, it is alleged, all governed societies carry out, and by reference to which they can be compared. Almond's ‘functions’ are not logically necessary ones; they are simply a convenient checklist which he has derived from the data. This does not make them any the less useful. I would agree with Professor W. J. M. Mackenzie's estimate, ‘In fact Almond attempted the right thing in possibly the wrong way – but no one has yet improved on his analysis of the elements of the polity’.

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From Comparative Politics to Cultural Flow: The Hybrid State, and Resilience of the Political System in India

Conceptualizing Cultural Hybridization - Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context ◽

10.1007/978-3-642-21846-0_8 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 107-132 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Subrata K. Mitra

Keyword(s):

Comparative Politics ◽

Political System ◽

The Political ◽

Hybrid State

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11. The Political System and Comparative Politics: The Contribution of David Easton

Contemporary Empirical Political Theory ◽

10.1525/9780520313248-012 ◽

1997 ◽

pp. 219-230

Author(s):

Gabriel A. Almond

Keyword(s):

Comparative Politics ◽

Political System ◽

The Political

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Government and ideology during the age of whig supremacy: the political argument of Sir Robert Walpole's newspaper propagandists

The Historical Journal ◽

10.1017/s0018246x00016484 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 289-317 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Simon Targett

Keyword(s):

Eighteenth Century ◽

Human Nature ◽

Political Thought ◽

Political System ◽

The Political ◽

Government Response ◽

Political Ideas ◽

Political Morality ◽

The Common ◽

Philosophical Questions

ABSTRACTContrary to received historical wisdom, Sir Robert Walpole, the pragmatist par excellence, was diverted by political ideas. Thus he invested time and an unprecedented amount of money in political newspapers. This article investigates the primary pro-government newspapers and, as well as identifying the leading circle of political writers sponsored by Walpole, addresses the varied and complex arguments that appeared in their ‘leading essay’ each week for twenty years. After identifying some common but misleading historical representations of Walpolean political thought, the article examines the treatment of three broad philosophical questions – human nature, the origin, nature and extent of government, and political morality – so demonstrating that Walpole's spokesmen were not narrowly pragmatic. Subsequently, the article focuses upon the careful pro-government response to the common charges that Walpole corrupted the political system and betrayed traditional whig values. In doing so, the article highlights the skills of some underrated eighteenth-century political writers and, more importantly, emphasizes the union of government and ideology in Walpolean political thinking.

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Democratiation in Brazil and Argentina: Some Reflections

Government and Opposition ◽

10.1111/j.1477-7053.1984.tb01044.x ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 269-276

Author(s):

George Philip

Keyword(s):

South America ◽

Comparative Politics ◽

Political System ◽

Military Coup ◽

The Political ◽

Self Confidence ◽

History Of ◽

High Degree ◽

The Military ◽

Second World

THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AMERICA COULD ALMOST be written in terms of military coups and returns to barracks. In Argentina, to take only the period since the Second world War, the military has relinquished power in 1946,1958, 1963, 1973 and 1983 (launching coups in 1955,1962,1966 and 1976). The military in Brazil, although less hyperactive than in Argentina, has relinquished power to civilians in 1945, 1955 and, incompletely so far, since 1982, while taking over government in 1954 and 1964. It seems therefore – rather paradoxically for some earlier writers on comparative politics (as was noted in the introduction) – that it is possible to speak of a military-civilian political system operating in much of South America. This features periods of military as well as civilian rule and operates largely because of a high degree of military self-confidence and the willingness of many civilians to contemplate military rule, even over a long period, with equanimity. A mere military coup, or return to barracks, need not imply a change in the political system itself. This point is not tautologous; the politica system may undergo genuine change, but only if civilian attitudes to the military (and willingness to accept military intervention) and military attitudes to civilian politics chan e fundamentally. Is there any sign that this has happened or is about to happen in the cases of Brazil and Argentina?

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