Упражнение 5. Speak about the world׳s principal religions.
TEXT 8 ●Прочитайте и переведите текст.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS A political system
is a cultural universal and a social institution formed in
every society. Each society must have a political system because politics is
deciding who gets what, when and how.
Power is at the heart of a political system, for it is defined as the ability to
exercise one's will ever others. Power relations can involve large organizations,
small groups, or even people in an intimate association.
There are three basic sources of power within any political system – force,
influence and authority. Force is the actual or threatened use of coercion to
impose one's will on others. When leaders imprison or even execute political
dissidents, they are applying force; so, too, are terrorists when they seize an
embassy or assassinate a political leader.
Influence, on the other hand, refers to the exercise of power through a
process of persuasion. A citizen may change his or her political position because
of the newspaper editorial, an expert testimony, or a stirring speech at a rally by
a political activist.