Mechanism of Politics

by Lee, Chang Hoo

Chapter 0. Contents of this book

B. Detailed Content of Political Phenomenology

Then, what is the more detailed content of political phenome- nology?

Political actors in politics interact with each other according to the attributes of the capacities they possess, and reinforce the power structure (cooperative relationship) for their own interests and the common good. Changes in the power structure are influenced by internal and external factors and change over time according to the demands of political actors. Its contents can be described in detail as three laws that can be briefly described as follows.

The 1st law explains the relationship between the capacity of each political actor and their power phenomenon. That is, how the capacities of each political actor can be generally understood, and how their power operates in accordance with those capacities, is explained by the 1st law.

The 2nd law explains the relationship between the relationships between political actors and the power phenomenon. Here, the relationships between political actors are affected by the situations or conditions they are in. That is, the 2nd law explains the part "the change in the power structure is affected by internal and external factors."
The 3rd law explains the temporal change of the power phenomenon. That is, the 3rd law explains the part "the power phenomenon changes temporally according to the demands of political actors."

Survival Process Theory

The starting point of the whole discussion is the "general Principle" of Survival Process Theory. Its content is that political phenomena are one aspect of human survival struggles. The key lies in the word "survival". And the meaning of this "survival" is a concept that retains the competitive and primitive connotations that we associate with the word in everyday language.

In my view, this survival process theory must inevitably be a general principle of political phenomena. The fact that survival process theory is a general principle of political phenomenon can be explained by evolutionary logic. If humans cannot survive, political phenomena will also disappear. Furthermore, if people in the category A do not pay attention to expanding or preserving their survival ability in political phenomena, while people in the category B are more concerned with expanding their survival ability, over time the political phenomena formed by the category A will become more generalized. This corresponds to "1" in the 3.1 law system.

The Three Laws of Naturality

Therefore, the survival process theory becomes a dividing line between political and natural phenomena. In other words, the survival process theory is not only a dividing line for political phenomena but also for all human phenomena that are distinguished from natural phenomena. Human phenomena are above the survival process theory, and natural phenomena are below. Human phenomena include different laws than those that govern natural phenomena, according to the theory of survival process. But human phenomena are subject to all natural laws as well. Of these laws, I will apply the "Law of Inertia", the "Law of Force", and the "Law of Repulsion" to explain human phenomena. This is equivalent to applying Newton's 3 laws to social phenomena.

The "Law of Inertia" means that if there is a human activity or social phenomenon, it has the property of continuing to be maintained in the same way. The "Law of Force" is the principle that strong force overcomes weak force. The "Law of Repellence" is the principle that all human activity elicits resistance from others.
On the other hand, in the 3.1 law system, the three laws represented by the number '3' are the 'Samjae Principles of Power', the 'Principle of Organizational Maintenance Equilibrium', and the 'Law of Political Change'.

The 1st law

Let me start with the 1st law, the Samjae Principles of Power. The content of the 1st law is the elements and interaction structure of political capacities. This principle states that the political forces that influence political phenomena are three capacities: military, economic, and ideological. I will refer to these as the "Samjae Capacities."
Political phenomena are shaped by the choices of individuals and, on a larger scale, by political groups such as the state. All political actors use one or more of the Samjae Capacities to act upon other political actors and are also influenced by one or more of these capacities. The sum of the Samjae Capacities that a political actor perceives and incorporates into their choices creates a political condition, and the total of the Samjae Capacities exerted by one actor upon others constitutes political activity.

The elements of Samjae Capacities have different temporal and spatial effects. Armed capacity has the strongest and most direct influence in the shortest period of time in the narrowest region. On the other hand, ideological capacity exerts the most comprehensive and long-term influence in the widest region. Economic capacity has the intermediate features between military and ideological capacities. Also, the order in which each element of Samjae Capacities effectively exerts its influence is also important. Generally, after the balance of power or survival conditions due to Armed capacity is established, the balance or survival conditions due to economic capacity become possible, and only then does ideological capacity exert its influence.

The 2nd law

The 2nd law, the Organizational Maintenance Equilibrium Law, states that the cohesion of a political organization increases proportional to the threat to its survival from the outside and decreases proportional to its armament level and the diversity of ideological values. The resistance of the organization to external threats is proportional to the cohesion among its members. The threat to survival from the outside of a political organization refers to the threat of theft to life, property, and other values. The resistance of the organization refers to the ability to neutralize the theft threat from the outside. cohesion refers to the degree of cooperation among the members of the organization. So, if the nation's stability is threatened by external intrusion, the citizens and internal political actors will concentrate first on defense against the external intrusion by working together more than before.

This simple 2nd law applies not only to one organization, but also to an organization A and its internal organization B. If there are some organizations within B, the 2nd law applies to those organizations as well. As a result, the application of the 2nd law to complexly structured organizations both internally and externally can result in complex phenomena. Therefore, when a national crisis occurs and the nation is in danger, it becomes difficult for individuals within the divided political forces of the East and West to simply choose to overcome the national crisis. They must also consider the risk of being taken advantage of by opposing forces once the nation has overcome the crisis.

The 3rd law

The 3rd law, the Law of Political Change, states that "political change occurs depending on the relative size of the forces trying to change the political system and those trying to maintain it." The forces seeking to change the political system arise from human civilization and society and fundamentally from humans themselves, as they change. This is inevitable. However, in situations where everything is changing, human survival is not easy, which is why power systems (political systems) are formed to suppress this change. Therefore, the forces seeking to change the political system and those trying to maintain it can also be understood as the confrontation of two survival needs that come from within humans themselves. From this perspective, political changes such as revolutions, coups, wars, etc. are not unusual examples of political phenomena, but are originally universal and fundamental phenomena.

The primary conclusion of the 3rd law is that the greater the length of time that a political framework is maintained, the more significant the subsequent political change. A political framework refers to the system of governance, the political order, etc. For example, if scientific and technological advancement causes a shift in people's consciousness and an increase in popular demands for democratization, but a monarchy or dictatorship represses these demands and remains in place for a long time, the eventual political change will not be a simple reform but rather a major political change such as revolution or national division. In order to avoid such political change, political demands arising from social changes must be reasonably accommodated and the political order must be reorganized at an appropriate stage.

It is very important and necessary that I explain all the political phenomena of the east and west in a consistent manner as I assert with 3.1 laws and systems. This is because it makes political science, which was not at all scientific until now, into a science. This is because it transforms political science, which was not scientific at all until now, into a science. In current political science, the way political scientists explain political phenomena varies in each area of the discipline. For instance, in political process theory, Easton's model can be utilized, but this model is unable to explain international political phenomena at all. The same is true in the case of political change theory. If there are principles or laws used in political elitism, they will likely be almost irrelevant in explaining the phenomena of laws and systems.

In political science, it is taken for granted that the concepts, systems, and laws used to explain political phenomena in one area are not applicable in adjacent areas. However, this is highly inconsistent with the principles of general science. There may be plausible excuses from political scientists, but it seems unnecessary to immediately counter them here. Despite this, I believe that the most effective way to counter such excuses is to explain the entire realm of political phenomena in a simple and consistent manner with a set of laws and systems. Nevertheless, in Chapter 5 of this book, you will see some important attempts at direct counterarguments.