SOCI 1001 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Steven Lukes, Progressive Tax
26 Feb 2017
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Chapter 7:
• How does Steven Lukes’s theory of power compare to Max Weber’s?
• Weber believed that power was the ability to get people to do things even if they
want to resist, which requires force. He thought authority was the capacity to get
people to voluntarily do things, which does not require force. Steven Lukes
believed that those are both forms of power and what we really needed to pay
attention to is the three dimensions of power.
• What are the three dimensions of power? How do they differ?
• The first dimension of power is visible. It is seen when 2 or more parties are in a
visible conflict and one wins. The winner is said to have exerted power over the
other.
• The second dimension of power is not always visible. This second dimension
occurs when the more powerful group or individual stops others from raising
issues that would challenge their authority. They do something called “agenda-
setting”, where they keep certain issues off the table so that they never have to be
discussed in the first place.
• The third dimension of power is completely invisible. This dimension comes into
play when powerful groups actually convince the other groups that their situation
is actually better for them, and that they benefit from the position they are in.
• How do the three dimensions of power help us understand gender relations in the 1950s?
• The first dimension of power was easily seen in the gender relations in the 1950s,
as men would almost always win the conflicts. Men were physically stronger and
usually made all the money, so the women did not really have the ability to leave
or question their husband’s authority as their husbands would tell them that they
were the breadwinners, and therefore it was their house.
• The second dimension of power showed up in 1950s households when men would
stop women from bringing up issues that were important to them. For example, if
a woman wanted to go back to school and brought up that she had been looking
into classes at the local community college, her husband may interrupt her and
change the topic so that they do not ever even have to have the conversation.
Norms also play an important role in this situation, as many women may have not
wanted to challenge their husbands in front of others and would therefore not
want to bring up the issues they wanted to talk about at all.
• The third dimension of power would help us understand gender relations in the
1950s because many women may have not wanted to do anything except be
housewives. They were socialized to believe that they were lucky to get to stay
home and take care of their families, and they often looked at their life goals as
being able to have a beautiful home with beautiful children. It is therefore hard for
us to know if women were really choosing this lifestyle, because they had
constrained options and the housewife one was often the best one.
• When is power most effective, according to this theory? How do people resist power?
• Power is most effective when it is least visible. The first step to resisting power is
making it visible, such as what happened with the feminist movement where The
Feminist Mystique questioned if society had to be set up the way it did, and
brought light to the issues of the patriarchal system.
• What is the state, according to sociologists?
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Document Summary
Chapter 7: how does steven lukes"s theory of power compare to max weber"s, weber believed that power was the ability to get people to do things even if they want to resist, which requires force. He thought authority was the capacity to get people to voluntarily do things, which does not require force. How do they differ: the first dimension of power is visible. It is seen when 2 or more parties are in a visible conflict and one wins. The winner is said to have exerted power over the other: the second dimension of power is not always visible. This second dimension occurs when the more powerful group or individual stops others from raising issues that would challenge their authority. They do something called agenda- setting , where they keep certain issues off the table so that they never have to be discussed in the first place: the third dimension of power is completely invisible.
