Views on Power Relationships in Politics

A detailed Summary of Views on Power Relationships in Politics

Views on Power Relationships in Politics

The article by Williams titled "The Emperor's New Clothes" and the article by Flax titled "Women Do Theory" complement each other in a number of aspects. Both women are essentially saying that society today still views people as categories instead of a homogenous society. People are male or female, black or white, and rich or poor, instead of just human beings.

Williams's views on power relationships are broader than Flax's, but still share a similar pretext. Williams sees power relationships as occurring in a variety of situations, whereas Flax discusses only the gender differences. Williams sees power relationships as existing between teachers and students, parents and children, authority figures and citizens, and finally between the haves and have-nots. Williams initially discusses how the teachers at her son's school misused their position of power when they taught the children that color doesn't matter. She says, "...the very reason that the teachers had felt it necessary to impart this lesson in the first place was that it did matter, and in predictably cruel ways..." She is upset that the teachers waited for a situation to arise, in which

Flax's article is more cut and dried than the Williams article. Flax's only concern in her article is the lack of equality between the sexes and the methods that must be employed to eradicate this inequality. Flax, like Williams, believes that historical conventions deeply affect today's manner of thinking. Flax states "Plato...argued that women could be philosopher kings since these should be chosen on merit and no inherent proof existed that women were any less intellectually capable than men. Other political theorists...have argued that women cannot think abstractly and has a less developed moral sense." Flax uses this information to conclude "Thus, part of the problem feminist theorists face is taking the general 'grammer' and concepts of traditional theory and applying them to women and the issues that affect us."

Williams continues to discuss how authority figures in general need to accept that conventional beliefs are still strong parts in many people's ideologies. She states, "...we tend to enshrine the notion with a kind of utopianism whose naivete will ensure its elusiveness. In the material world ranging from playgrounds to politics, our ideals need more thoughtful, albeit more complicated, guardianship." Williams knows that confronting racial issues is always difficult and painful but she realizes that examining the issue directly is the only way to solve anything.

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Approximate Word count = 942
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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