What Determines Who Has Political Power And

What Determines Who Has Political Power, And How Much Of It They Have. Essay, Research Paper

There are many theories of power, and one crucial factor in determining who has political power is in defining what political power actually is. Many concentrated on studying power relationships within communities: community power. Polsby related the notion of community power to “decisions affecting large parts of the population of local communities” and sees “power”, influence” or “control” as the “capacity of one actor to do something affecting another actor, which changes the probable pattern of specified future events”. Here then, power is to do with decisions. “Who rules.” is analogous to “Who participates.” or “Who prevails in decision – making.”. Power is embedded in decision – making so that it is held by those who make decisions that can affect the community in general. Someone who involved in making the key choices shaping a community have power in the sense that what they decide on changes people´s lives and in this way, these decision – makers have power or control over other people. This is typical of pluralist theories of power. They focus their attention on the exercise of power, rather than its sources. Hunter, on the other hand, felt that there was dominant elite in the community, that power is concentrated in the hands of a few. His might be called a “stratification theory” of power, where power is a “subsidiary aspect of the community´s social structure” (Polsby) and the main determinant of the distribution of power within a community is its social stratification. Stratification studies assert that communities are divided into classes. The upper class, or the group with the highest social – economic standing, hold the most power. They are the “power elite” and can exercise influence over a large number of community decisions, thus “ruling” the local community. Hunter´s studies, as he saw them, showed that Regional City in Atlanta was run by a small group of powerful men who were able to shape policies both informally and behind the scenes. Admission into the “power elite” here is determined almost solely on their position within the local business community. The economic elites Hunter views as the power behind politicians. The topmost political leaders, he says, are the men with the most important economic connections. Who these influential people are was determined by Hunter´s “reputational method”, asking a panel of judges who they felt to be the most powerful in the community. While these people may be commonly held by he community as having the most influence and power, they rarely initiate or execute policies. These tasks they delegate to those lower down in the power hierarchy or pyramid. There are many criticisms of the elitist approach. Firstly, it is unclear whether Hunter´s reputational method can be completely accurate. People understand power in different ways. They see different people as powerful in different ways. It is unlikely that everyone understands or knows the ways in which Hunter believes the economic elite to hold power over the community. Rose argues that the economic elite is indeed important and very influential, but there are many other factors involved in the distribution of power in communities. According to Rose, there are several elites who are not united. While some have economic power, others have military, religious, political or association-based powers. Pluralists in general also reject the elitists´ basic premise that there is a power structure in every human institution reflecting the organisation´s stratification. Such categorical assumptions about community power cannot be made at all and it is doubtful whether, fundamentally, anyone dominates in a community. The question then is not “Who runs this community.” but “Does anyone run this community.” Elitists also assume that their power structure stays stable over time. There is some sort of longitudinal stability in that the same people hold the power over time. The pluralists, however, argue that particularly where power is specifically linked to issues, it tends to be only momentary or, at best, semi – permanent. In addition, there is a distinction between reputed and actual power that the elitists ignore. A panel of judges may view one particular person as being especially powerful. Whether this person actually exercises their influence, however, is another question. While elitists might presume that the members of their power elite are in fact involved in running the community, they may not be. Thus pluralists feel that theirs is far more “scientific” approach, based not on mere speculation, but on visible and specific empirical facts. The methodology of the pluralists contrasts with the elitists in that they use case studies in their findings, consisting in research that might be more anthropological or journalistic in character. They first distinguish between the routine and the key decisions that are made in a community. Once they have determined which the “key” or “important” decisions are, they can find out who was involved in the making of these decisions, their role and the nature of their participation during the decision – making process and, finally, how they have affected the specific outcome. Once such pluralist is Dahl, who studied the distribution of power in New Haven, and discovered that there was no evidence of any one ruli