Ideas of elitism on the other hand were put forward later on the 19th century by a group of Italian theorists to the describe what they called “the inevitable fate awaiting liberal democracy”. Geoffrey Ponton; Peter Gill, Introduction to Politics, 36. They believed that the masses in society would be ruled by a few “knowledgeable elites” and explained that this idea was not only inevitable but desirable. Patric Dunleavy; Brendon O’leary, Theories of the State, 36. Their theories were explained by the fact that as humans we posses different levels of skills and intelligence and that those with the most talent would rise to the top, colluding with other elites to ‘preserve their supremacy’. John Kingdom. Government Politics in Britain an Introduction, 430.
To look at who has political power is to look at who commands important political resources since power itself derived from the ability to influence others. Some resources in a liberal democracy, such as free speech, are available to all while others such as money and expertise are concentrated in small circles. Pluralists recognise that while there are multiple political resources no single entity is able to dominate all.
Members of the UK workforce command much smaller financial resources compared to UK company directors yet there size is mirrors their ability to voice their opinion in a democratic system through the ballot box. In reality however the majority of UK citizens don’t directly take part in decision making although they are able to exercise there right to vote to elect a new political party every five years and so to some extent they take part in some decision making. However between elections the ruling elite will have greater opportunity to dominate the political resources and hence exercise greater powers.
Similarly both elitists and pluralist provide different accounts of how political power is distributed through society. Pluralists would argue that power is in fact dispersed through society between groups of individuals who in tern have the ability to affect the policy decisions. This is not to say that power is divided equally between interest groups. Indeed some groups will be larger, be better organised and have greater access to ‘policy-making’ circles and so in effect exercise more power than others. Barrie Axford et all, Politics an Introduction, 417. The key idea here is that there are multiple sources of power.
In contrast elite theorists would state that in practice power will inevitably ‘fall into the hands of a few’. They see political resources as being dominated by a minority through their skilful utilisation. A study by C Wright Mills in the 1950s would appear to strengthen this argument since he concluded that critical political decisions in America were being made at that time by a ‘power elite’. John Kindom. Government Politics in Britain an Introduction, 431.
The relative sharing of power within a pluralistic system emphasises the role of interest groups in shaping policy. Because no group can dominate policy is effectively determined by the bargaining and negotiation that takes place between groups, something which pluralists argue government simply facilitates. Under the arena analogy government is seen to play a role similar to that of a referee, laying down the foundations for negotiation and ensuring fair play. Geoffrey Ponton; Peter Gill, Introduction to Politics, 36.
On the contrary elites would argue that key decisions are dominated by a minority and that whether deliberately or accidentally the elite will marginalise certain issues. Barrie Axford et all, Politics an Introduction, 119. For instance in 2003 in the run up to the war in Iraq more than a million people turned out on the streets of London to voice their opposition. In the long run however this had no lasting effect and the prime minister, Tony Blair, make the decision to go to war regardless. BBC News, ‘Million march against Iraq war’, Feb. 16. 2003: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2765041.stm.
Dahl criticised the concept of a small minority being able to dominate all decisions deeming it unrealistic and too much of a generalisation. Through his own studies he found that elites themselves would often recruit others from outside the elite to conduct research into fields to which they lacked sufficient social knowledge to make informed decisions. He felt this was partly due to the fact that elites often came from limited social backgrounds, something which Mahler would appear to agree with “It does appear that individuals from the upper and middle classes tend to be disproportionately represented in relation to their size in the population as a whole” Gregory S Mahler, Comparative Politics an Institutional and Cross National Approach (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc, 1992 ), 203. While elites are able to exercise power to enact policy, given this argument, it would seam that in some cases policy itself is derived from outside of the elite. This would seam more reasonable since in the UK the Prime Minister will from time to time consult Police Chiefs and Doctors when planning policy, although one could question whether these figureheads are in fact elites themselves.
In the UK, due to the centralised nature of the political parties, candidate selection for local constituencies is controlled by the national party. The ability to join the party may therefore depend upon sharing the same interests, social background and in effect being ‘sponsored’ by the existing elite. GIP Introduction to Comparative Politics. This would seam to support the idea that in fact elites are coherent in operation. In this way elites would argue that equity of access does not exist as pluralists may believe. Barrie Axford et all, Politics an Introduction, 490.
It seams clear that both theories would tend to agree that in large industrialised societies democracy in the traditional sense is almost impossible to achieve. On one hand pluralists would state that interests are represented by groups, rather than individuals, whom debate with others to decide policy outcomes. Clearly In the case of the UK government institutions are by no means a ‘representation’ of the population as a whole when we consider the fact that only 9.2% of MPs were female in 1992, although that figure rose to 17.8% in 1997. GIP Introduction to Comparative Politics.
Indeed it could be argued that representatives of interest groups are elites themselves and on that basis will prefer to deal with other elites. John Esberey; Larry Johnston, Democracy and the state ( Ontario: Broadview press ltd, 1994 ), 193. In this way we may think, as Schumpeter did, that democracy can still exist in the form of ‘democratic elitism’ where elites are required to compete for the popular vote of the masses. Barrie Axford; Gary K, Browning, Politics an Introduction, 119. This would seam a more reasonable theory in societies like the UK and US where evidently there are strong factions between groups of elites themselves.
It could be argued that the expansion in ICT over the last decade or could in the future facilitate direct democracy although in today’s would it would seam that on balance the elite account of power seams more realistic. That is not to say that elitism is provides all the answers. In the US it is difficult to identify a single elite that is able to dominate all of government and in the case of the UK there would seam to be little coherence between groups of elites themselves. Providing that elected elites are accountable to the masses and are elected regularly then it would seam the elitist account of political power can be democratic.
Bibliography
Books:
Axford, Barrie et all, Politics an Introduction, London: Routledge, 1997.
Dunleavy, Patric; Brendon O’leary, Theories of the State , Hampshire: Macmillan Education Ltd, 1984.
Esberey, John; Larry Johnston, Democracy and the State, Ontario: Broadview press ltd, 1994.
Kingdom, John, Government Politics in Britain an Introduction ,Cambridge: Policy Press, 1992.
Mahler, Gregory S, Comparative Politics an Institutional and Cross National Approach , New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc, 1992.
McKay, David, American Politics and Society, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2001.
Ponton, Geoffrey; Peter Gill, Introduction to Politics, Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1988.
Journal articles:
Jaenicke, Dr Douglas; Prof. Micheal Moran, “Introduction to Comparative Politics”, Government and International Politics, (2005), 2005/06: 3-60.
WWW:
BBC News, ‘Million march against Iraq war’, Feb. 16. 2003: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2765041.stm.
Philip Worrall – 548622- GV1200 - Non-Assessed Essay - Page of
