Power and national political actors

Politics is the contest over how a society should be run, and the study design frames that contest through a small set of concepts that you must be able to define and then apply to real actors. Power is a capacity: the ability of a political actor to achieve its interests.

It can be thought of as power to (the capacity to make a law, fund a program, mobilise supporters or shape public debate) and power over (the capacity to compel other actors or ordinary people, sometimes by force or threat).

Authority is power that others accept as rightful, usually because it flows from an office, a rule or a recognised procedure: a Prime Minister who commands the confidence of the House of Representatives, a judge appointed under Chapter III of the Constitution, or a police officer enforcing a lawful direction. Legitimacy is the belief that an institution, party or leader has the right to exercise power.

Legitimacy is what turns raw capacity into authority, and the study design treats it as the condition for political stability and for change that happens peacefully rather than through force.

Legitimacy can come from several sources, and each source shapes how power is exercised. Democratic processes (free elections, referendums, parliamentary procedure) produce legitimacy that is conditional: elected governments are expected to use lawful channels and face scrutiny, and must seek renewed electoral support to remain in office. Ideology legitimises power through a shared belief system such as nationalism, religion or a revolutionary program; leaders justify decisions by the doctrine, and opponents can be treated as enemies of the cause.

Coercion produces compliance through fear, surveillance or force; it can sustain control, but compliance based mainly on fear may weaken if enforcement becomes less credible. Economic performance legitimises a government by delivering jobs, growth and services; it can encourage a focus on results, while poor performance may weaken this justification for rule. Actors can combine sources, and a legitimising narrative is the story an actor tells about why its use of power is rightful.

Two further concepts describe where ultimate authority sits. Popular sovereignty holds that authority comes from the people, expressed through elections and, for constitutional change, referendums under section 128, which require a national majority and majorities in at least four of the six states. Parliamentary sovereignty describes a parliament's supreme capacity to make or unmake law; in Australia it is bounded by the written Constitution and by High Court review, so Australian parliaments are supreme only within their constitutional powers.

Participation covers the ways citizens take part, from compulsory voting to protest. Political interests are what actors want; political perspectives are the standpoints, shaped by ideology, values and experience, from which they see those interests. Political stability and change name the tension between forces defending the status quo and forces seeking to alter it, remembering that stability is not always desirable and that change can bring either order or disorder.

Political significance is a judgement reached by applying criteria such as the scale and durability of consequences and the extent to which actors achieved their interests. Federalism, responsible government and the separation of powers, the three ways Australia organises formal power, are defined in the next section.