Theoretical Analysis of power in society
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 388.
Power is very difficult topic to study because decision making is complex and open takes [place behind closed doors. Despite these difficulties researchers have developed three competing models of power in United States:
· The pluralist model (the people rule).
“An analysis of politics that sees power as spread among many competing interest groups”.
Pluralists claim first that policies are an arena of negotiation. With limited resources no organization can expect to realize al its goals. Organization therefore operates as veto groups realizing some success but mostly keeping opponents from achieving all their ends. Pluralists see power as spread widely throughout society, with all people having at least some voice in the political system.
(Dahl, 1961, 1982; Rothman &Black, 1998)
Ø The power elite model (few people rule):
“An analysis of politics that sees power as concentrated among the rich”.
The term power elite was coined by C.Wright Mills 1956 who argued that a small upper class holds most of the society's wealth, prestige and power.
Power elite theorists say that the United State is not a democracy because the concentration of wealth and power is simply too great for the average persons voice to be heard. They reject the pluralist idea that various centers of power serve as checks and balances on one another. From the point of view those at the top are power full enough that they face no real opposition.
(Bartlett &Steele, 2000; Mooreet al; 2002)
Ø The Marxist model( the system is biased):
“It is an analysis that explains politics in term of the operation of a society economic system”.
Like a power elite model, the Marxist model rejects the idea that the United State operates as a political democracy. But the power elite focus on just the enormous wealth and power of certain individuals. The Marxist model goes further and sees biased rooted in this nations institutions' specially its economy.
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