SOC433H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Marxist Sociology, Liberal Democracy, Class Conflict
1
Abercrombie et al. “Power”
• Power for Weber is the probability that a person in a social relationship will be able to carry out
his or her own will in the pursuit of goals of action, regardless of resistance.
• Weber defined domination as probability that a command would be obeyed by a given group of
people and included the following characteristics
o Power exercised by individuals and therefore involves choice, agency and intention
o it involves the notion of agency, that is, an individual achieving or bringing about goals
which are desirable
o power is exercised over other individuals and may involve resistance and conflict;
o it implies that there are differences in interests between the powerful and powerless
o power is negative, involving restrictions and deprivations for those subjected to
domination.
• Weber also thought that when the exercise of power was seen by people as legitimate then it
became authority
• A criticism for this approach is that its emphasis on agency and decision making, fails to
recognize that non-decision making is also an exercise of power
o Eg. Failure or refusal to act
• People of higher power can shape the wants and needs of the subordinates
• In Marxist perspective power is seen as a structural relationship, existing independently of the
wills of individuals
o Agency and intentionality is not important
• Power is considered a consequence of the class structure of societies
• Poulantzas defined power as the capacity of one class to realize its interests in opposition to other
classes and has the following features
o power cannot be separated from economic and class relations
o power involves class struggle, and not simply conflicts between individuals
o the analysis of power cannot be undertaken without some characterizationof the mode of
production
• Parsons defines power as a positive social capacity for achieving communal ends; power is
analogous to money in the economy as a generalized capacity to secure common goals of a social
system
o It is hard to distinguish between power and influence
• Dahl defines power, authority and influence as influence terms where influence is the ability of
one person to change the behaviour of another.
• Power is thus regarded as widely diffused through society rather than being concentrated in a
ruling elite.
• the political system is seen to be open and pluralistic, permitting the whole community to
participate to some degree in the political process
• pluralistic theories conceptualize power as diffused through the political system, whereas Marxist
sociology sees power concentrated in the ruling class.
• Weber emphasized the importance of force and defined the state as an institution which had a
monopoly of force.
o The distinctions between the theories
• Dahl suggested power was concentrated in a minority which he called the 'political class', but
defended liberal democracies against the Marxist charge that an economic ruling class governed
society.
• He also accepted implicitly the Weberian view of the state as a legitimate monopoly of force.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
