NUR AL HIDAYAH SAADON 811834

MUHAMMAD HAFEEZ ZAKARIA 811824

ARVIND POOBALAN 812442

A lobbying system in which access to the policy forums and committees is generally restricted to a limited number of policy players for whom membership is competitive, but strategically advisable (Coen, 1997). Dahl states that instead of a single center of sovereign power there must be multiple centers of power, none of which is or can be wholly sovereign. Although the only legitimate sovereign is the people... even the people ought never to be an absolute sovereign (Tivet, 1992).

Multiplicity of Rule of the game

relatively small
group

Endless quest for public support

Characteristics of Pluralism

Independent

Openness of the system

Countervailing influence

Potential versus Actual Power.

-Actual power means the ability to compel someone to do something

-Potential power refers to the possibility of turning resources into actual power.

-Cash, one of many resources, is only a stack of bills until it is put to work. A millionaire may or may not be politically influential; it all depends on what the wealth is spent for trips to the Bahamas or trips to Washington. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, was certainly not a rich person. But by using resources such as his forceful personality, organizational skills, and especially the legitimacy of his cause, he had a greater impact on American politics than most wealthy people.

Biggest Lobbies in Washington

Tech Lobby Mining Industry -trying to sell politicians and tax payers on the idea of clean coal. -$100 million dollars in 2008 -Google, Apple, Amazon -trying to lower corporate tax rates and pass cyber security legislation. -$120 million in 2010

Agribusiness Industry -food manufacturers like Kraft and Unilever, agricultural companies like Monsanto, tobacco companies such as Phillip Morris, biofuel producers like UNICA, and logging companies like International Paper and Weyerhauser.

-$150 million each year, funding campaigns and pushing legislation through Congress.

Financial Lobby

-contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to campaigns and political parties.

-Goldman Sachs alone donated over $2.6 million to various politicians and governing bodies. In return, financial institutions have been allowed free reign with other peoples money; they were responsible for the real estate bubble and the sub-prime mortgage of 2008, which contributed to the Great Recession.

National Rifle Association

-Much of the NRAs power, however, seems to lie less in its spending and more in its ability to mobilize its members. Gun rights are a polarizing issue in America, and can make or break politicians and legislation.
-Al Gore lost the 2000 election in his own home state of Tennessee, primarily because of his pro gun-control stance.

-spent $7.2 million during the 2010 elections on socalled private expenditures, messages that advocated or opposed certain political candidates.

REFERENCE: C. Wright Mills: The Power Elite In The Power Elite (1956),

ISSUES AMONG ELITE THEORY: Initially Are All Societies Stratified?

ISSUES AMONG ELITE THEORY: Is Power Used for Societys Benefit and Welfare or Personal Gain?

ISSUES AMONG ELITE THEORY: Necessary for society or not?

ISSUES AMONG ELITE THEORY: One or more ruling Elites?

Control by more ruling Elites who are have prestige.
Marxist form of theorizing which argues that power is fundamentally lodged with the owners and controllers of economic production (the bourgeoisie).

Political power is seen to derive from economic ownership .

we can identify a Ruling Class which not only controls the means of production, distribution and exchange in capitalist society but which also dominates and controls the institutions of political power.
REFERENCE: Marxist, A Level Sociology a resource Based Learning Approach

ISSUES AMONG ELITE THEORY: What are the Characteristics and patterns of Elites?

ISSUES AMONG ELITE THEORY: Are Elites and Powerful persons the same?
Maybe YES Maybe NO

An individual or group that is influential in one realm may be weak in another

power cannot be taken for granted

no one is allpowerful unless proven so through empirical observation.

CLASSIC ELITE THEORY

The Classic Elite Theory which is based on two ideas:

power lies in position of authority in key economic and political institutions

the psychological difference that sets Elites apart is that they have personal resources, for instance intelligence and skills, and a vested interest in the government; while the rest are incompetent and do not have the capabilities of governing themselves, the elite are resourceful and will strive to make the government work. For in reality, the elite have the most to lose in a failed government.

CLASSIC ELITE THEORY

Classical elite theorist generally believe that society is divided between the rulers (the elite) and the ruled (everyone else).

They believe the elite make all of the decisions in society, which are almost always in their own interest.

This is the same as the general Marxist viewpoint but with one big difference, elite theorists believe that elite domination is desirable, inevitable and natural and that the elite, are the elite because they are better than everybody else. The Marxists however believe that elite domination is unfair and exploitative.

CLASSIC ELITE THEORY

There are three scholars who has discussed about this theory: Vilfredo Pareto

Gaetano Mosca
Robert Michels

Vilfredo Pareto
Pareto emphasized the psychological and intellectual superiority of elites, believing that they were the highest accomplishers in any field. He discussed the existence of two types of elites: 1. governing elites 2. non-governing elites He also extended the idea that a whole elite can be replaced by a new one and how one can circulate from being elite to nonelite.

Vilfredo Pareto

Vilfredo Pareto

Gaetano Mosca
Mosca emphasized the sociological and personal characteristics of elites. He said elites are an organized minority and that the masses are an unorganized majority. The ruling class is composed of the ruling elite and the sub-elites. He divides the world into two groups: 1. ruling class 2. class that is ruled Mosca asserts that elites have intellectual, moral, and material superiority that is highly esteemed and influential.

Gaetano Mosca
1. Mosca believed that the rules will always be powerless because they dont have intelligence or moral qualities to organise or run their societies. 2. He also said that the minority of people were more cultured ,rational, intellectual and morally superior than everyone else. 3. He argued that elections are just mechanisms in which members of the elite get themselves elected by everyone else (people who are not in the elite. 4. Mosca believed in government for the people, and dismissed the idea that government could ever be government by the people. 5. Some critics have suggested that this is a very simplistic view of power and politics because real differences between governments are dismissed. 6. However, no criteria are provided by which we can measure so called superior qualities of elites.

Robert Michels
Sociologist Michels developed the Iron Law of Oligarchy where, he asserts, social and political organizations are run by few individuals, and social organization and labour division are key. He believed that all organizations were elitist and that elites have three basic principles that help in the bureaucratic structure of political organization:

1. Need for leaders, specialized staff and facilities

2. Utilization of facilities by leaders within their organization 3. The importance of the psychological attributes of the leaders