WEEK 13 LECTURE 2: SOURCES OF SOCIAL POWER

Question 1

Topics of interest to political sociologists

Answer 1

Power
The State
Ethnic Violence
Terrorism
Regime types
War & Peace
Nationalism
Development

Question 2

Weber definition of power

Answer 2

Ability to exert one’s will over others.

Question 3

Domination

Answer 3

The combination of power and legitimacy

Question 4

Is power positive or negative?

Answer 4

Positive - social change

Negative - coercive, used to dominate and exploit others

Question 5

Questions about power

Answer 5

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?

Question 6

State-centric

Answer 6

how does power operate within state boarders?

Question 7

Marx on power

Answer 7

*about money, power is economic
society - two unequal classes

Ruling class vs subordinate class

Question 8

Weber on power

Answer 8

society - unequal classes, status groups, and parties

*multi-dimensional

Question 9

Bourdieu on power

Answer 9

stratified based on forms of capital including

social capital
cultural capital
economic capital
symbolic capital

*power = access to these forms of capital

Question 10

Elite model

Answer 10

society is ultimately ruled by a small number of individuals who share a common set of interests

Question 11

Mills - The Power Elite

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Issues with Mills - The Power Elite (2)
(Critiques on Power Elite)

Answer 12

1. Failing to provide empirical evidence.
   *Critiqued as having a lack of research, Remained Theoretical
   - lack of empirical evidence
2. Failed to account for how Power Elite deals with resistance
   - how/if this could control resistance (differing in opinions)

Question 13

Domhoff takes Mills Power Elite and analyses 2006 society

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Mill’s Pyramid Model

Answer 14

THE POWER ELITE
____________________
Corporate rich
Executive branch
Military Leaders
____________________
Interest group leaders
legislators
local opinion leaders
____________________
unorganized exploited masses

Question 15

Domhoff’d Model

Answer 15

Made up of

1. Social Upper Class
2. Corporate Community
3. Policy formation Organization

*When interests overlap, most power exerted

*Power elite only exists in small area where all interests overlap

Question 16

Pluralist Model of Power

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Mann on Social Power

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Motivational Model

Answer 18

Need for power means motivation by power and control
Centered on money, prestige, status

Question 19

Mann FOUR DIMENSIONS OF POWER

Answer 19

*Economic power is just ONE mode of power
*Not everything about economic prestige
*sources of social power not from motivational model, instead:

1. ideological power - norms, values, rituals, religion, liberalism, feminism
2. economic power - wealth, control of economic resources. (capitalist, motivational model)
3. Military power - social organization of concentrated lethal force or violence.
4. political power - concerned with the state and its institutions + territorial negotiations

Question 20

Mann, groups of power can be: (3)

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Marx on Power

Answer 21

stratified by between 2 unequal classes

Ruling class
vs
Subordinate class

Question 22

Weber on Power

Answer 22

stratified by unequal classes, status groups, and parties

Question 23

Bourdieu

Answer 23

stratified based on forms of capital

social
cultural
economic
symbolic

Question 24

Mills Power Elite (contextual to the States)

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Mann

Answer 25

Classes cannot be reduced to state boarders

Question 26

State

Function of State

Answer 26

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