SOCIOL 144 Lecture Notes - The Power Elite, Regents Of The University Of California, Royal Dutch Shell
7 Oct 2013
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Document Summary
Theories of political power: the pluralist model. Power is distributed among a plurality of interest groups. No person, group, or organization holds absolute power in american society. The pace of political change is slow. The state is neutral in the pluralist model. Interest groups: associations or groups of people who have circled around a specific interest. Those with higher socio-economic statuses participate in interest groups more often: the power elite model. The idea that modern organizations of society are oligarchical. Robert michels, studied the most democratic organization (the. Social democratic party) in the late 19th century germany. This organization fought for the lower classes, believed in the equality of people. He studied how decisions were made, who advocated, and when the party gathered to made decisions, who actually made them. Turns out only a select few made the main decisions. Society have smart people, the elites. society should be run by them. C. wright mills the power elite.
