TAILIEUCHUNG - Ebook Politics (2nd edition): Part 2
(BQ) Part 2 book "Politics" has contents: The economy and society, political culture, communication and legitimacy, machinery of government, policy and performance, policy process and system performance. | The Economy and Society 'It's the Economy, Stupid.' Reminder on the wall of Bill Clinton's office during the 1992 US presidential election campaign At almost every level, politics is intertwined with the economy and with society. Ideological argument and debate have traditionally revolved around the battle between two rival economic philosophies: capitalism and socialism. Voting behaviour and party systems are shaped largely by social divisions and cleavages. Parties compete for power by promising to increase economic growth, reduce inflation, tackle poverty and so on. As President Clinton recognized, election results are often determined by the state of the economy: governments win elections when the economy booms, but are likely to be defeated during recessions or slumps. Indeed, orthodox Marxists go further and suggest that politics is merely a part of a 'superstructure' determined or conditioned by the economic 'base', the political process being nothing more than a reflection of the class system. Although few people (including Marxists) now hold such a simplistic view, no one would deny that socioeconomic factors are critical in political analysis. Quite simply, politics cannot be understood except within an economic and social context. The central issues examined in this chapter are as follows: 178 9 • THE ECONOMY AND SOCIETY Economic systems An economic system is a form of organization through which goods and services are produced, distributed and exchanged. Marxists refer to economic systems as 'modes of production'. A recurrent difficulty, however, is confusion between such systems of economic organization and the ideas and doctrines through which they have been defended. Capitalism, for instance, is sometimes treated not merely as an economic system, but also as an ideology in its own right, specifically one that defends private property, emphasizes the virtues of competition, and suggests that general prosperity will result from the pursuit of .
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