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16 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Power |
The ability of one person to get another person to act in accordance with the first person's intentions. |
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Authority |
The right to use power |
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Direct or Participatory Government |
"The rule of the many" - Aristotle; a form of government in which all, or most, citizens participate directly in either holding office or making policy |
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Representative Democracy |
Any system of government in which leaders are authorized to make decisions by winning a competitive struggle for the popular vote. |
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Referendum issues |
Policy choices that appear on the ballot |
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Majoritarian Politics |
When the leaders in a representative democracy are so sharply constrained by what most people want that their actions follow the preferences of citizens very closely. In this case elected officials become the delegates of the people, acting as the people (or a majority of them) would act in a certain situation. |
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Elite |
An unidentifiable groups of persons who possess a disproportionate share of some valued resource - in this case, political power. |
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The Bourgeoisie |
Capitalists |
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Marxists |
The individuals who believe the theory of elite influence based on the writings of Karl Marx. The theory states that government is merely a reflection of underlying economic forces, primarily the pattern of ownership of the means of production. All societies are divided on the basis of the relationships of people to the economy. Government is nothing more than a piece of machinery designed to express and give legal effect to underlying class issues. |
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Mills' Theory |
A theory of elite influence based the book The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills. It states the a nongovernmental elite makes most of the major decisions but that this elite is not composed exclusively, or even primarily, of corporate leaders. It argues that most important policies are set by a loose coalition of three groups - corporate leaders, top military officers, and a handful of key political leaders. |
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The Power Elite |
A novel by C. Wright Mills that describes a theory on elite influence |
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Bureaucrats |
Appointed officials |
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Max Weber (1864-1920) |
A German historian and a founder of sociology |
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Weber's Theory |
A theory of elite influence that states that all institutions, governmental and nongovernmental, have fallen under the control of large bureaucracies whose expertise and specialized competence are essential to the management of contemporary affairs. It further contends that capitalists or workers may come to power, but the government agencies they create will be dominated by those who operate them on a daily basis. |
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Pluralist View |
A theory of elite influence with no single intellectual parent which states that political resources are so scattered in our society that no single elite has anything like a monopoly on them. There are so many governmental institutions in which power may be exercised that no single group, even if it had many political resources, could dominate most, or even much, of the political process. |
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Political Resources |
Money, prestige, expertise, organizational position, access to the mass media, etc |
