Political System

▪ is any persistent pattern of human relationships that involve to a significant extent of power, rule or
authority. (Dahl)
▪ those interactions through which values are authoritatively allocated for society. (Easton)
▪ is a set composed of the political elite, the counter-elite, and the people who interact and transact with
one another, with the people articulating interests to the political elite converting the input of
interest into output of public policies, and the counter-elite attempting to oust the political elite
from the government. (Agpalo)
Political Systems Approach

▪ recognizes that the government is the center of the political system, but many other parts are involved
▪ that in any system some parts are more important than others, and some parts interact more than others;
that change in one part may or may not affect other parts or processes in the system
▪ that in the political system there are variations: political parties and elections are very important in one
political system; the military may be the most important institution to study in some political
systems
▪ contends that any system has five characteristics
1. the system is made up of many parts
2. some parts are more important than others
3. the parts interact
4. to varying degrees the parts are interdependant
5. the system has boundaries

Foundation & Processes & Others

▪ Foundations: serve as limiting and facilitating factors of the behavior of the participants of the political
process and the performance of the political system as a whole.
▪ Input processes: involves the articulation and aggregation of interests from the people who participate in
the political process as public, interest group or political party.
▪ Conversion Process: involves the processing of the input of interests from the people and transforming
them into public policies.
▪ Output Process: involves the activities related to the issuance of governmental decisions from the
governmental machinery; or the emergence of the counter-positions from the counter-elite.
▪ Feedback Process: involves the reaction of the people and the counter-elite to the policies of the political
elite and those of the people and the political elite to the counter programs of the counter-elite.
▪ Adversarial Process: involves conflicting one-sided positions held by individuals, groups or entire
societies, as inputs into the conflict resolution situation, typically with rewards for prevailing in
the outcome.
-Adversarial Politics: takes place when one party takes the opposite opinion to that of the other even when
they may personally agree with what the government is trying to do.

Interest
- any claim which a person or group makes upon a another person or group.

Public
-a number of people who have evince a concern on a social issue.

Interest Group
-any organized body of individuals promoting, defending or articulating some kind of interest or
combination of interest either with the government or non-governmental entities.
Political Party
-an organized body of individuals who participate in the political process with a view to winning and
controlling the government