Power Flashcards
Lukes
Three faces of power – Decision-making, agenda setting and thought control
Gramsci
Thought control is used to create an ideological hegemony over the proletariat
Dahl
Decision-making is the most important measure of power as it is both objective and quantifiable
Bachrach & Baratz
People or groups that are able to create or reinforce barrier to the public airing of policy conflicts hold the greatest power
Schattschneider
‘Some issues are organised into politics whilst others are organised out’
Hobbes
Power is the ability of an agent to affect the behaviour of a patient
Packard
Power is the ability to manipulate behaviour by the creation and manipulation of man’s very wants
Marcuse
Advanced industrial societies use pervasive manipulation of needs
Foucault
Social relations and practices are assigned meaning and give people identities ‘Discourse of thought’
AUTHORITY
Philosophical concept rather than empirically observable, being in authorty vs being an authority
Weber
Authority is ‘legitimate power’ – Three typologies of authority – Legal-rational, Charismatic, Traditional
Locke
Legal rational authority is exercised from below through a social contract where individuals give ‘tacit’ rather than active consent
Rousseau
Legal rational authority follows the ‘general will’
Arendt
Society is held together with respect of traditional authority as society is bound together by a social identity
Hobbes
Authority is needed in order to prevent the state of nature from occuring
Scruton
Authority is a ‘natural necessity’ and essential feature of all social institutions
Beetham
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)
Habernas
‘Legitimation crisis’ – There is a conflict between the needs of democracy and the needs of capitailsm
King
This conflict causes government to be ‘overloaded’
Locke
Government is only legitimate as people have given their tacit consent
Plato
People are not academically capable of exercising the vote in their best interests
Chomsky
Mass media distorts political and news broadcasts influencing the way people vote
US imperialism violates democracy and undermines the constition and sovereignty of nations
Gramsci
The state creates ideological hegemony/veil of ignorance to make the proletariat feel content with the norm
Mililband
Democracy is essentially a capitalist institution
