UCSP HANDOUTS CHAPTER 5 L3 Name:
Teacher: Mr. Jonel P. Gumagay
POLITICAL AND LEADERSHIP STRUCTURES
Political Legitimacy and Authority
Bands and Tribes
-Simplest political system
-"Acephalous" - Without a well-define system of
leadership
Band
 Typically formed by families living together
(Marriage ties, Common descendants,
Friendship affiliations, Common interest,
Common enemies)
 Requires kinship by either blood or affinity
 Hierarchy is limited
 Older or Respected (Older > More knowledge >
More experience)
 Gender dictates power (ex. Woman: Gathering
band, Man: Hunting band)
 Experience and ability grants leadership and
power (Limited though)
 Size and Number = Instability and Conflicts (ex.
less number, less conflict)
 If it survives, it turns to Tribes.
Tribe
 Survives conflicts through organization to settle
conflicts (ex. Ritual dueling for land disputes,
Courtship rituals for potential lover/s)
 Organizations are done through Pantribal
Associations or Sodalities (ex. Elders, Council,
etc.)
 Often headed by Village Headsman (No
absolute political power)
 Power is derived from having a senior position
(age and/or experience) and an ability to
command authority (make people follow them)
 Tribes often fall apart when exposed to modern
societies (ex. Native Americans tribes only exists
today by conservation and are not as
widespread as they were back then)
Chiefdoms
 Chief as a leader (from the name itself) and it
has more defined political structure
 Formal leadership and authority is held by
members of a select family
 Power is inherited (By blood or by
achievements)
 Social structures are hierarchical, defined by
relationship to those in power
 Class mobility exists through notable
achievements
Grade & Section:
 Social status is affected by marriage, age and
gender
 Highly unstable and like to destroy and rebuild
themselves
 Can be Simple or Complex
Simple
 Central village or community ruled by a single
family
 Smaller communities surround the central
community, ruled by their own leader
 Those leaders are still under the leader of the
central community
Complex
 Combined chiefdoms into one and ruled by the
Paramount Chief or Head Chief
 Highly organized with a class system
 Demands commoners to give tributes to their
chiefs, which in turn are given to the Paramount
Chief
 Tributary system makes Paramount Chief
obligated to serve the commoners (By presiding
rituals and functions, redistributing material
goods, awarding rewards, etc.)
Nations and States
Nation
 Groups of people that share a common history,
language, traditions, customs, habits, ethnicity
 The groups are aware of their identity as a
nation and their potential as a united,
autonomous being
 Nations are referred to as either “imagined” or
“abstraction”
 Benedict Anderson - nations exist as a state of
mind, you can be physically apart from the
country by still consider yourself part of the
nation (ex. OFW’s)
 Paul James - “nation” is abstract, objectively
impersonal (impersonal - not existing as a
person; having no personality)
 Nations have no political sovereignty
(sovereignty - the authority of a state to govern
itself or another state)
States
 A political unit consisting of a government that
has sovereignty presiding over a group of
people and a well-defined territory (ex. The
fictional city-state of Ba Sing Se, from Avatar:
The Last Airbender)
UCSP HANDOUTS CHAPTER 5 L3 Name:
Teacher: Mr. Jonel P. Gumagay
 A state is the highest form of political
organization
 The state is sovereign because it has the
capacity to maintain order within its boundaries
 The state is sovereign because other states
recognize it as an independent state
 People who comprise a state are called its
citizens
Nation-State
 When the citizens of a state belong to only one
nation, that’s called a nation-state
 Many states govern over peoples with different
cultural identities, differing descent, different
language, different beliefs and traditions, etc.
(ex. The USA and Singapore are nations of
immigrants, and thus can’t be considered
nation-states, similarly, the Philippines is a mix
of different tribes, spanish, american, and
japanese influences, not to mention other
southeast asian stuff, and therefore can’t be
considered as a nation state)
 There can be many nations in one state (ex. The
European Union governs over the nations that
comprise it, if the EU acted more like a
traditional government, then that’s a case of
many nations under one state)
 There can be many states under one nation (ex.
The USA)
 Basically, a nation can be a state, a state can be
a nation, but being one doesn’t necessarily
mean being the other
 Taking a single state and trying to make it into a
single nation can cause problems, like
discrimination against other cultural identities,
forced integration into the dominant national
identity, genocide
POLITICAL LEGITIMACY AND AUTHORITY
POLITICAL
Legitimacy and Authority
WHAT IS POLITICAL LEGITIMACY AND AUTHORITY?
Politics requires power. Power is held by Leaders.
What makes a Leader?
What gives Leaders authority?
The authority held by Leaders needs to be legitimate.
What makes authority legitimate?
Why should those who are considered Leaders be
considered Leaders?
AUTHORITY VIS-À-VIS LEGITIMACY
 Vis-a-vis or Face-to-face; compared to
Grade & Section:
 Authority is the power to make decisions and
give command
 People follow authority because of its
legitimacy
 Legitimacy is a moral and ethical concept that
gives whomever possesses power the right to
use that power since the use of that power is
right and just
 Just because one has authority, doesn’t mean
they have legitimate authority
 Authority gained through things like conquest,
deception, violence, etc. tends to be
undeserved, since the person who gains the
power is ill-equipped to handle that power
 For authority to be binding and stable, it has to
be legitimate
WEBER
Types of Legitimacy Authority (3 Types)
Traditional Authority
 Legitimacy is derived from well-established
customs, habits, social structures (ex.
Monrachies, Chiefdoms, etc.)
Charismatic Authority
 Authority is from the charisma of the individual
 Some see this charisma as the right for that
individual to rule (ex. Religious Icons,
Celebrities, etc.)
Bureaucratic Authority
 Authority gained from the rules of an institution
or the laws of a state
 Modern legit authority
 Where government power comes from