Concentration of Power is an inevitable feature of all political systems. Discuss. - page 3
Keywords: concentration of power seperation theories political marxism marxist elitism elitist pluralism pluralist
By exploiit on 19/06/2010
Level: A Level (Year 13)
Page Number: 3 of 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
an elite few, however they do not see this as desirable or inevitable. They subscribe to the same view as radical elitists, claiming that although the masses are enfranchised, they are manipulated by this elite – the ‘ruling class’ – to vote not for true representation, but for the interests of the bourgeoisie (the upper class). In this sense, Marxists deny that democracy is a true feature of the political machine. Instead, they believe that power derives from economic resources and wealth, dubbing this the state ‘substructure’; the bourgeoisie control the means of production, such as businesses and factories, and through this they exploit the proletariat (the working classes) and leave them dehumanised and expendable. This use of power to exploit, Marxists argue, is an example of state coercion and clearly proves that power is concentrated to the ruling class and not dispersed.
Marxist theory also explains how the ruling class maintains the concentration of power through manipulation of the masses. They state that on top of the substructure, a state ‘superstructure’ is established which utilises areas like the mass media, education, law, religion and family in order to legitimate or justify their power and also to influence the electorate to support them further. Marx and Engels referred to this smokescreen as the ‘false class consciousness’. This theory was developed by one Marxist theorist, Ralph Miliband, who focused largely on the media as a facet for manipulation of power. He claimed that advertising is used to protect the power and interests of the ruling class through three main ways; by convincing consumers that big businesses and banks care about the needs of the customers and that profit is secondary to this; by using and promoting socially approved values and norms such as family ties or sociability to appeal to the masses; and by convincing the proletariat that happiness can be acquired through accumulation of material possessions.
Another theorist, Nicos Poulantzas, made a separate distinction in claiming that the ruling class and the political class are not interchangeable. Instead, the political class exists as a somewhat independent entity, with ‘relative autonomy’, which acted in the interests of the ruling class. Along with Louis Althusser, Poulantzas elaborates that the superstructure comprises of two major areas – the ideological state apparatus which includes churches, unions, schools, the media and the family, which is largely responsible for shaping opinions in support of the concentration of
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