Week 1 power governance and social movements PDF

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Notes to accompany Week 1 — Power, Governance, and Social Movements. 1 of 4 The course highlights both the structural and relational nature of power in society and examines the role of social movements in changing contemporary society. Max Weber outlines his theory of power in Theory of Social and Economic Organisation (1922). His approach to power linked power with concepts of authority and rule. Weber wrote that power was the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance regardless of the basis on which this probability rests. Weber was interested in power as a factor of domination, based on economic or authoritarian interests. Weber identified three sources of legitimation for the activation of power: charismatic, traditional, and rational-legal. Authority, ‘power that people perceive as legitimate rather than coercive’ Governance ‘is the exercise of political, economic and administrative authority in the management of a countries affairs at all levels’. Weber’s sources of Legitimate Power: Charismatic Authority, Traditional Authority, and Legal-Rational Authority Claims for Legitimate Power (Lane West-Newman 2007) Source of Legitimacy Charismatic Traditional Legal-rational

Reason for Obedience I can ‘save’ you or change your life for the better It has always been this way I am lawfully appointed to this role

Types of Political Systems Totalitarianism: An extremely restrictive political system that can be defined as ‘a political system that extensively regulates people’s lives’. Government disallows all opposition, political indoctrination is imposed, and education including curriculum, and media are state controlled. Authoritarianism: Political systems that are less extreme that totalitarianism, they can be described as ‘political systems that deny popular participation’ and marked by a concentration of power, the lack of a legal means to remove political leaders from power, and little scope for people to express their opinions. Monarchy – A political system, usually hereditary, based on the rule of a single person — the sovereign, in whom supreme authority is vested. Typically, in European countries where monarchies still exist, they take the form of a Constitutional Monarchy where the monarch is

the symbolic head of state and where elected representatives, democratically elected, actually rule. Democracy: A political system in which power is exercised by the people, legitimated by legal-rational authority, office-holders gain power through Election. The Nation State. The modern nation state is a political apparatus over a specific territory with its own citizens backed up by a military force and a nationalistic sovereign creed. (Macionis and Plummer. 2008. Sociology: A Global Introduction The constitutional nation state, has a defensible boundary, a single currency, often a national language(s) and a unified legal system. While states differ in their specific characteristics, the commonality amongst them is that there is always a central authority which rules, and which has the power of force over those they rule. (Bilton et. al 1981) Pre-industrial society in Europe – asymmetry of power. Absolutist monarchy, landowners/aristocracy held power over the majority of the peasant population. Theories of power. The Ruling Class — An analysis of politics that sees power concentrated among the ruling elite, an economic class. Karl Marx In capitalist societies, the capitalist class controls the machinery of the state. State policies reflect the economic interests of the capitalist class. Antonio Gramsci The key concept that Gramsci introduced is that of Hegemony – the means through which a ruling group wins over subordinate groups is through ideas. The Ruling Elite/ Power Elite The Ruling/Power Elite — Power is concentrated amongst members of the economic elite and policy-makers. (Mosca and Pareto, C Wright Mills). The Ruling Elite: The work of Mosca and Pareto replaces the idea of class in Marx with the idea of the masses as a description the then newly organised workers who they saw as sources of disorder in society. They rejected notions of equality and were critical of modern democracy, regarding it as a situation where passive conformists were manipulated by a cynical elite. The centre of the ruling elite is the political elite who derive their power from legitimacy through the electoral system or being appointed to administrative offices. Elite circulation involves the movement of individuals from one social position to another. The Power Elite: C. Wright Mills. In his studies of the U.S. in the 1950s Mills identified the concentration of power among political, economic and military hierarchies The concentration of wealth and power undermines the potential for wider democratic influence

Pluralism (Dahl) The third theory is called Pluralism. Pluralism is an analysis of politics that sees power as dispersed among many competing interest groups. Pluralism is a theory of Dispersed Power. For Dahl, power has many sources, and politics is an arena of negotiation. Social forces are active in political decision-making – they compete in power relationships through mechanisms of consensus and compromise. Dahl argues that power has many sources and that politics is an arena of negotiation According to Dahl, social forces are active in political decision-making – they compete in power relationships through mechanisms of consensus and compromise — no single group establishes complete dominance. The role of the state is to maintain a balance of competition. Dahl argued that political power could best be investigated by analysing actual decisionmaking. The focus for sociological investigation should therefore be on who participates in decision-making and whose interests prevail (in other words we have to carefully examine the outcomes of any decision) in order to explain power dynamics.

Distribution of Power Is it Democratic?

Voter Apathy

Pluralist Dispersed

Power Elite Concentrated

Ruling Class Concentrated

Yes, no one group dominates

No, a small group dominate economy, military, government Ordinary people can’t stop government

No, wealth and power concentrated

Some just not interested

Alienation, most people are powerless...