Transcript Ch. 13 Section 2

Ch. 13 Section 2
Political Power in American Society
• Influence of the Vote
– Enables us to remove
incompetent, corrupt, or
insensitive officials from office
– Allows us to influence issues at
the local, state, national levels
• How much real choice do voters
have
– The cost of running a political
campaign limits the choice of
candidates
– Political parties are extremely
powerful
• On what do we base our votes
– Political socialization – informal and formal processes by
which a person develops political opinions
– Studies show that most political socialization is informal
• The family – this is how children learn political attitudes
• Education – the level of education a person has influences his
or her political knowledge and participation
• Mass Media – television is the leading source of political and
public affairs information for most people.
• Economic status and occupation – economic status clearly
influences political views, the same goes for where you work
• Age and gender – young adults tend to be more progressive on
issues such as race and gender. Women tend to be more
liberal on issues like abortion or women’s rights
• How fully do Americans take advantage of the
right to vote
– In 2000 only 51% of eligible U.S. voters exercised
their right to vote
– America has one of the lowest voter turnout rates
in the industrialized world
– Minorities, people with little education, and
people with smaller incomes are less likely to vote
in both congressional and presidential elections
• 2 models of political power
– Pluralism – system in which
political decisions are made as
a result of bargaining and
compromise among special
interest groups
• No one group holds the majority
of power
• Power is widely distributed
throughout a society
– Elitism – system in which a
community or society is
controlled from the top by a
few individuals or
organizations
• Power concentrated in the hands
of a few
• The masses are very weak
politically
• Functionalist Perspective: Pluralism
– Functionalists think that pluralism
based on the existence of diverse
interest groups best describes the
distribution of power in America
– Major political decisions in the United
states are not made by an elite few
– Interest group – a group organized to
influence political decision making
– Decisions are made as a result of
competition among special interest
groups
– New interest groups are born all the
time
• Conflict Perspective: The Power
Elite
– Sociologist C. Wright Mills was a
leading proponent of the elitist
perspective
• 1950 he claimed the U.S. no longer
had separate economic, political, and
military leaders
• The key people in each area
overlapped to form a unified group
that he labeled the Power Elite
• Power Elite – a unified group of
military, corporate, and government
leaders
• Elites are educated in select
boarding schools, military
academies, Ivy League schools,
belong to the Episcopalian and
Presbyterian Churches; and
come from upper-class families