Harold Lasswell Essay

Harold Lasswell, political scientist, defines politics as a power struggle about â€Å"who gets what, when, and how. † David Easton defines politics as an allocation of resources. David Easton defines politics as the â€Å"authoritative allocation of values or scarce resources. † These resources are divided in three general types. Describe these types. The three resources are: 1. Political resources: This resource refers to the country’s power, prestige, and status, backed by their military power.  They are called scarce resources because they are looked at in the hierarchical arrangement in the world order. 2. Economic resources: This resource includes the state’s financial resources (wealth, annual national income, supply of capital, and investment opportunities), industrial and agricultural production, and natural resources (oil, coal, water, and mineral resources). These are also scarce resources as well such as Oil and Water. We must consider we can do without Oil but not Water.  It is possible we might see water wars likely in the 21st century. 3. Social and cultural resources: This resource is related, not directly, to the global struggle for power (The struggle to compete for and reach dominance in an organization, a state, a region of the world, or the whole world). Unlike the other two resources, these resources are scarce and unequally distributed around the globe. As if you were a policy decision maker, recommend to your President which of these resources the government should focus on acquiring. As a policy decision maker, I would recommend to my President to utilize all three resources. I really believe I would tell the President to be more accountable with all the resources. I would recommend to our President to choose the Economic resource first. I chose this first because of our country is facing at this moment are tremendous hardships. Because we did not get ourselves in this situation, we are facing what the previous President’s decision and we are cleaning up now. Discuss how you can achieve the maximum allocation for the resources you choose. I really believe that I would have done by taxing all like the President has. I would also give back like he has done by giving back 5% of his income. All the congress would have to give back 5% of their income. I would cut back on the costs of entertaining that goes on within the White House. The traveling costs and the entertaining would have to balance each other out. The second that I would choose Education and jobs as well as healthcare is my next goal. I would make sure the Veterans and the Seniors as well as the people who are disable.