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| party politics today give the illusion of choice. contemporary politicians hold no real power, presidents lack the power to change the world and current society. Their main purpose is to maintain the illusion that politics have changed. Wars today are more about ideological politics than national views. |
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| a democratic political system requires that individuals have a larger number of specific interests, democracy wouldn’t work if one division of society dominated all others, this would lead to tyranny of the majority. One group in society would be in a permanent majority and the interests and wishes of the minority could be disregarded. Countries which have a major split between ethnic or religious groups have this problem |
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He describes society as full of discourses and that changes in the political structure have led to
changes in punishment. He proposes the idea that through the power and knowledge of the government their punishments have changed from physical to mental. He also proposes a panopticon style of prison in which constant surveillance is used as a threat leading to better
self -discipline of the inmates. |
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he argued against the idea that the state of the economy greatly impacted on the infrastructure of society
he divided society’s superstructure into two parts, civil and political, with political society being the government and civil society being the key institutions. Both of these combined created “the state”
the ruling class gained hegemony by using its political influence to direct the morals and ideas in society, backing this with political authority. However the ruling class could never reach full hegemony. |
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| Looks at decision making in a political agenda and the control over that agenda.By using power you can make it so there is no action against yourself through weakened opposition. He saw power as a way of control in 3 dimensions.These three faces of power are decision making, non-decision making and shaping desires. |
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| he sees a decline in meta-narratives in society, people no longer place their faith in wide theories such as Marxism or fascism and this is the same in political groups. The people now focus on localised policies.He sees knowledge as the main source of power in society and as the public lose faith in society it forces the politicians to break society into a series of language games. Therefore power becomes linked to these games rather than the state. |
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he followed Marx and Engels idea that power comes from wealth. He believed that the state is a tool used by those with high economic influence to remove threats to capitalism
the state is run by a number of elites who ran the central institutions who served the ruling class who all had a basic interest in preserving capitalism and privatisation. |
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he argued that there was a power elite present in the USA in the 1950`s.he explained that the elite rule in an institutional was and that the structure of these institutions gave those who controlled institutions great monopolised power.The three main institutions he talked about were:
1. the Major Businesses – these businesses maintained the economic side of the elite, they are paid by the government to create weapons for the military.
2. The military – the military protects the governments interests being the coercive part of the elite. They are given weapons by the government to carry out their will
3. the government - govern over the state and contract the military and Businesses. Control the political side of the elite. Seen as the “typical elite” |
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| he saw the coming elite rule as inevitable and dismissed the idea of a proletarian uprising or communist society, meaning they left it unopposed.He identified two elite groups, the cunning foxes and the strong, decisive lions. Each group had their weaknesses meaning they would eventually be overtaken by the other group and would last until replaced again. |
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he saw those with better organisational ability to be the ruling class. Since people are unequal there would always be those with more skill meaning there will be an elite group containing the best.Even in democratic society the elite hold the power both legitimising and rationalising their rule through manipulation of the public, this elite would be dominated by different qualities depending on the type of society.
Even though democracy’s are more equal than all other forms of government they are always dominated by an elite group |
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he believes that the whole social system including the government live in relative autonomy meaning the state has input into all parts of society.
he identified the ideological state apparatus as ways in which the state and those in power maintains power.
There are two types of state apparatus: repressive and ideological |
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the autonomy of states from society
states have considerable autonomy and can achieve goals if they want to and these goals can be individual or society based. Society strives to better itself |
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those who hold power do so at the expense of others. power can either be coercive or authoritative. there are 3 types of authority:
-charismatic
-traditional
-rational-legal |
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| propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state. He believes that the elite use a regime of media control and propaganda to manipulate us in to their ideal society. They believe in Neo liberalism (state centred politics) and the idea of free markets but they are manipulated by the state. |
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| hey argued that competition between contenders for office must result in the granting of effective authority to one group and the presence of an effective opposition in the legislature as a check on the power of the governing party. |
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| different interest groups influence different issues in society. Those in power associated with the interest groups to make policy’s more appealing to everyone. He observed the trade unions meeting with the politicians to make more social policies as well as helping the workers. |
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| the confederation of British industry had no more influence over the government than trade unions and other pressure groups. Even small pressure groups had large influence on the government as they still represented part of the majority. People have different interests at different times. |
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| pluralists ignore the possibility that some have power to prevent certain issues from reaching the point of decision. As a result of this non decision making only safe decisions can be made leading to a variety of pressure groups. He sees democracy as a myth. |
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| economic policy in Britain is largely shaped by political and economic elites. Policy’s are more influenced by large international companies as opposed to the pressure groups. Although they have some influence it is mainly determined by what the companies are interested in. |
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he described a number of attempts to explain the distribution of power and the operation of the state as elite pluralist theories.
1. They see western society’s as democratic
2. they regard governments as a process of compromise
3. they agree that power is widely dispersed |
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state autonomy of democratic states – either state centred or society centred
- 3 types of autonomy
1. the state does when they want
2. the state convinces its opponents to agree
3. the state follows populist ideas |
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| rulers can either be good or effective and that they are other harsh to keep society in order rather than good to appease the public. focused on traditional Christian values |
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argues that there is a growing detachment with party politics in Britain meaning a decline in participation and involvement in elections.there is a lack of trust
possible causes could be politics are failing through incompetent politicians. |
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| post democracy is the period after democracy where political groups become less useful. we have entered a state of post democracy where political power has been heavily compromised and there has been a spread of democracy but the power of institutions has declined. |
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