Political Power

A detailed Summary of Political Power

In his book, Power and Choice, W. Phillips Shively introduces to students of political science the importance of power within the framework of politics. According to him, "Politics consists of the making of a common decision for a group of people through the use of power"(Shively 9). And that "power" is, "the ability of one person or group to cause another person or group to do what the first wishes, by whatever means"(5). Power, therefore, is of extreme importance within the arena of politics for any group who wishes to institute reform or maintain order. And yet, the question of analyzing power, and understanding how it is used, is not as clear as one might imagine. There is a split among political scientists as to who has the power, and how those in positions of power keep it. The debate seems to be centralized over the difference between observable power (manifest) and indirect power (implicit). When deciding the question of who has the power, it seems that the arguments of Hunter and Dahl are mainly concerned with the observable power exercised by those in positions of authority. The other, and sounder, theory of Baratz, Bachrach, and Lukes, maintains that actual power lies within the manipulation of issues from behind

Lukes argued that it is not a question of the suppression of ideas, but of group B actually being unaware that they are disadvantaged. He argued, "B does what A wants because B wants to. But B should not want to do it... If B acts contrary to her objective, real interests then power is being exercised...the very desires and wants of B are manipulated"(Digeser 979). This type of power is akin to Marx 's theory of false consciousness. It asserts that a powerful group lures the mind into believing that it is free, when in reality it is not in the person's best interest to do what that group wants. Not only does group B not see the issues that are being suppressed, they don't even realize that there are issues. This method, if true, is the most effective use of implicit power. There is no chance that a suppressed issue will come to forefront because there are no perceivable conflicts.

Manifest power is, "based on an observable action by A that leads B to do what A wants"(7), and it is this power that both Hunter and Dahl, describe in their studies. These men, although they disagree on specific details, believe that those people with political power take an active and visible part in their community's important issues. When Hunter did his inquiry into the political currents of Atlanta, he asked his advisors who the most influential men in the city were. He found that there existed a group of powerful individuals who greatly influenced the policies of the downtown area. He concluded that the wealthy elite were in control and had the greatest influence on the politics in the Atlanta area. However, a political scientist named Dahl did not agree. Dahl argued that

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Approximate Word count = 1134
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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