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Political Processes

Political institutions are social arrangements for making and enforcing laws, protecting the public health and welfare, distributing public funds and tax burdens conducting foreign affairs and deciding the issue of war and peace. Political institutions are the ultimate source of legitimate power in a social system whether the system is based upon the rule by the many or rule of the few.

Political institutions are concerned with the distribution of power in the society. Max Weber defined the state as a human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. The state is one of the important agencies of social control whose functions are carried out by means of law backed ultimately by physical force.

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