Question

1. Question • What is Weber’s view of power?

2. Answer • “the ability of an individual or group to achieve their own goals or aims when others are trying to prevent them from realising them”

3. Question • What is Dahl’s concept of power?

4. Answer • Dhal argued that concrete decisions must be examined to find out which groups achieve the outcomes they desire. Only then will power be realised.

5. Question • How does Lukes view power?

6. Answer • Lukes identifies three faces of power. • 1st face – success in decision making • 2nd face – managing the agenda • 3rd face – manipulating the wishes of others

7. Question • What do you understand by the term issue method?

8. Answer • Where sociologists study specific issues to in order to see who actually gets their own way in the decision making process

9. Question • What title does Lukes give to Dahl’s concept of power?

10. Answer • 1st face of power

11. Question • Why is Lukes’ critical of Dahl’s pluralist view of power?

12. Answer • It ignores how some groups are more powerful than others and can manage the agenda therefore no decisions are ever made on a level playing field • It also ignores how people’s wishes and desires are already manipulated prior to the extent they don’t even see the need to raise an issue in the first place

13. Question • How are Bachrach and Baratz critical of Dahl?

14. Answers • Classical pluralism assumes issues are debated on a level playing field. Therefore it ignores how some groups are able to manage the agenda on an issue being discussed

15. Question • How is Lukes’ critical of Bachrach and Baratz?

16. Answer • They ignore how the wishes and desires of individuals are groups can be manipulated by the powerful so individuals and groups act against their own interests.