WEEK 13 LECTURE 2: SOURCES OF SOCIAL POWER Flashcards
Topics of interest to political sociologists
Power
The State
Ethnic Violence
Terrorism
Regime types
War & Peace
Nationalism
Development
Weber definition of power
Ability to exert one’s will over others.
Domination
The combination of power and legitimacy
Is power positive or negative?
Positive - social change
Negative - coercive, used to dominate and exploit others
Questions about power
Is power possessed by individuals or contingent on broader social networks?
Is power something one person can have? Or is it the sum of various human interactions?
Does power impact people differently in terms of opportunity, experiences and life chances?
State-centric
how does power operate within state boarders?
Marx on power
*about money, power is economic
society - two unequal classes
Ruling class vs subordinate class
Weber on power
society - unequal classes, status groups, and parties
*multi-dimensional
Bourdieu on power
stratified based on forms of capital including
social capital
cultural capital
economic capital
symbolic capital
*power = access to these forms of capital
Elite model
society is ultimately ruled by a small number of individuals who share a common set of interests
Mills - The Power Elite
Argues a small amount of people, military, industrial, capitalists, and government leaders. This group ultimately controls the fate of America.
*power rests in the hands of a small relatively FIXED group at the top of the social hierarchy
*Operates as a cohesive unit (share interest)
*This has been applied to other capitalist nations such as Canada
Issues with Mills - The Power Elite (2)
(Critiques on Power Elite)
- Failing to provide empirical evidence.
*Critiqued as having a lack of research, Remained Theoretical
- lack of empirical evidence - Failed to account for how Power Elite deals with resistance
- how/if this could control resistance (differing in opinions)
Domhoff takes Mills Power Elite and analyses 2006 society
Agree with Mills about Power Elite running the world’s capitalist nations
*However, Expanded this to include a variety of
- the corporate community
- policy formation organizations
- the social upper-class
*Argues more fluidity in Power Elite than Mills suggests
*Less cohesive than Mills suggests - groups may not necessarily have the same interest
*The way they exert power is often through lobby groups and interest groups.
Ex. Canadian Association of Patrol Producers
- not just made up of patrol company owner
- includes government officials and policy creators, investors, and other workers in patrol industry
Mill’s Pyramid Model
THE POWER ELITE
____________________
Corporate rich
Executive branch
Military Leaders
____________________
Interest group leaders
legislators
local opinion leaders
____________________
unorganized exploited masses
Domhoff’d Model
Made up of
- Social Upper Class
- Corporate Community
- Policy formation Organization
*When interests overlap, most power exerted
*Power elite only exists in small area where all interests overlap
Pluralist Model of Power
Power is shared widely
*There is a dispersion in power
No core group in society that is consistently able to advance its own interests
*how political power looks different in a two-party system vs multi party system
*Multi: Tend to have more dispersion of power in decision making + more checks and balances
Mann on Social Power
Challenges state-centric view of power
*interested in history analysis of power
- how has power existed in previous societies vs where we are now (globalization)
*Power is not confined
*Power is not as clearly organized as the motivational model suggests
*Power can exist beyond state borders
Motivational Model
Need for power means motivation by power and control
Centered on money, prestige, status
Mann FOUR DIMENSIONS OF POWER
*Economic power is just ONE mode of power
*Not everything about economic prestige
*sources of social power not from motivational model, instead:
- ideological power - norms, values, rituals, religion, liberalism, feminism
- economic power - wealth, control of economic resources. (capitalist, motivational model)
- Military power - social organization of concentrated lethal force or violence.
- political power - concerned with the state and its institutions + territorial negotiations
Mann, groups of power can be: (3)
transnational - across state borders, classes have a global reach.
*wealthy = wealthy everywhere
Nationalists - interests of one state conflict with another. Power exists from state to state. Nation vs. Nation.
*Military threats
*trade issues
*Environmental regulations
National - State-Centric view of power (quasi class)
*share interest but not neccesarily structured class
- territorily confined to borders of state.
- how much power you hold in your state
Marx on Power
stratified by between 2 unequal classes
Ruling class
vs
Subordinate class
Weber on Power
stratified by unequal classes, status groups, and parties
Bourdieu
stratified based on forms of capital
social
cultural
economic
symbolic
Mills Power Elite (contextual to the States)
small cohesive unit of power
*fate is controlled through limited hands
USA
republican and democrat
*one or the other has the power
Canada
*multi-power system, more than two parties running for office
Mann
Classes cannot be reduced to state boarders
State
Function of State
set of institutions designed to maintain order in a given territory
17th century - machinery for war
modern - constitutions + habits (regulations)
*socially reproduced
- Providing a sense of belonging
