Power

Question 1

Lukes

Answer 1

Three faces of power – Decision-making, agenda setting and thought control

Question 2

Gramsci

Answer 2

Thought control is used to create an ideological hegemony over the proletariat

Question 3

Dahl

Answer 3

Decision-making is the most important measure of power as it is both objective and quantifiable

Question 4

Bachrach & Baratz

Answer 4

People or groups that are able to create or reinforce barrier to the public airing of policy conflicts hold the greatest power

Question 5

Schattschneider

Answer 5

‘Some issues are organised into politics whilst others are organised out’

Question 6

Hobbes

Answer 6

Power is the ability of an agent to affect the behaviour of a patient

Question 7

Packard

Answer 7

Power is the ability to manipulate behaviour by the creation and manipulation of man’s very wants

Question 8

Marcuse

Answer 8

Advanced industrial societies use pervasive manipulation of needs

Question 9

Foucault

Answer 9

Social relations and practices are assigned meaning and give people identities ‘Discourse of thought’

Question 10

AUTHORITY

Answer 10

Philosophical concept rather than empirically observable, being in authorty vs being an authority

Question 11

Weber

Answer 11

Authority is ‘legitimate power’ – Three typologies of authority – Legal-rational, Charismatic, Traditional

Question 12

Locke

Answer 12

Legal rational authority is exercised from below through a social contract where individuals give ‘tacit’ rather than active consent

Question 13

Rousseau

Answer 13

Legal rational authority follows the ‘general will’

Question 14

Arendt

Answer 14

Society is held together with respect of traditional authority as society is bound together by a social identity

Question 15

Hobbes

Answer 15

Authority is needed in order to prevent the state of nature from occuring

Question 16

Scruton

Answer 16

Authority is a ‘natural necessity’ and essential feature of all social institutions

Question 17

Beetham

Answer 17

Three conditions of legitimacy – 1) Power must be exercised according to established rules (constitution) 2) These rules must be justified in terms of the shared beliefs of the government and the governed 3) Legitimacy must be demonstrated by the expression of consent (social contract)
Constitutions are only legitimate if people agree to them (eg Soviet constitution illegitimate)

Question 18

Habernas

Answer 18

‘Legitimation crisis’ – There is a conflict between the needs of democracy and the needs of capitailsm

Question 19

King

Answer 19

This conflict causes government to be ‘overloaded’

Question 20

Locke

Answer 20

Government is only legitimate as people have given their tacit consent

Question 21

Plato

Answer 21

People are not academically capable of exercising the vote in their best interests

Question 22

Chomsky

Answer 22

Mass media distorts political and news broadcasts influencing the way people vote
US imperialism violates democracy and undermines the constition and sovereignty of nations

Question 23

Gramsci

Answer 23

The state creates ideological hegemony/veil of ignorance to make the proletariat feel content with the norm

Question 24

Mililband

Answer 24

Democracy is essentially a capitalist institution