Power: A Radical View

199 Pages·2005·1.988 MB·English

by  Steven Lukes (auth.)

POWER
P
OWER
A RADICAL VIEW
SECOND EDITION
STEVEN LUKES
Publishedinassociationwiththe
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Firstedition(Chapter1)&StevenLukes1974,2005
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Firstpublished1974
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TomyfatherandNita
C
ONTENTS
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
1 Power:ARadicalView 14
2 Power,FreedomandReason 60
3 Three-DimensionalPower 108
Notes 152
GuidetoFurtherReading 163
References 169
Index 188
vii
A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am deeply grateful to the following persons for taking the
troubletocommentonwhateverIshowedthemamongtheargu-
ments set out here: Vivek Chibber, Jerry (G.A.) Cohen, Stan
Cohen, Suzanne Fry, David Garland, Ian Hacking, Russell
Hardin, Colin Hay, Clarissa Hayward, Jennifer Heerwig, Ste-
phen Holmes, Steven Loyal, Katha Pollitt, Adam Przeworski,
JohnRoemerandGailSuper.Ialsowanttothankmypublisher
Steven Kennedy for not taking no for an answer and for not
accepting¢nalversionsas¢nal.
viii
I
NTRODUCTION
ThirtyyearsagoIpublishedasmallbookentitledPower:ARadi-
cal View (hereafter PRV). It was a contribution to an ongoing
debate,mainlyamongAmericanpoliticalscientistsandsociolo-
gists, about an interesting question: how to think about power
theoretically and how to study it empirically. But underlying
that debate another question was at issue: how to characterize
Americanpolitics ^ asdominatedbyarulingeliteorasexhibit-
ing pluralist democracy ^ and it was clear that answering the
second question required an answer to the ¢rst. My view was,
and is, that we need to think about power broadly rather than
narrowly ^ in three dimensions rather than one or two ^ and
that we need to attend to those aspects of power that are least
accessibletoobservation:that,indeed,powerisatitsmoste¡ec-
tivewhenleastobservable.
Questions of powerlessness and domination, and of the con-
nectionsbetweenthem,wereattheheartofthedebatetowhich
PRV contributed. Two books, in particular, were much dis-
cussed in the 1950s and 1960s: The Power Elite by C. Wright
Mills(Mills1956)andCommunityPowerStructure:AStudyofDeci-
sionMakersbyFloydHunter(Hunter1953).The¢rstsentenceof
theformerreads:
Thepowersofordinarymenarecircumscribedbytheevery-
dayworldsinwhichtheylive,yetevenintheseroundsofjob,
family and neighborhood they often seem driven by forces
theycanneitherunderstandnorgovern. (p.3)
1
Power
Butallmen,Millscontinued,‘arenotinthissenseordinary’:
As the means of information and of power are centralized,
somemencometooccupypositionsinAmericansocietyfrom
whichtheycanlookdownupon,sotospeak,andbytheirdeci-
sions mightily a¡ect, the everyday worlds of ordinary men
andwomen...theyareinpositionstomakedecisionshaving
major consequences. Whether they do or do not make such
decisions is less important than the fact that they do occupy
such pivotal positions: their failure to act, their failure to
make decisions, is itself an act that is often of greater conse-
quencethanthedecisionstheydomake.Fortheyareincom-
mand of the major hierarchies and organizations of modern
society.Theyrunthebigcorporations.Theyrunthemachin-
ery of state and claim its prerogatives. They direct the mili-
tary establishment. They occupy the strategic command
posts of the social structure, in which are now centered the
e¡ectivemeansofthepowerandthewealthandthecelebrity
whichtheyenjoy. (pp.3^4)
Mills’s book was both a ¢ery polemic and a work of social
science. Alan Wolfe, in his afterword to its republication in
2000 justly comments that ‘the very passionate convictions of
C. Wright Mills drove him to develop a better scienti¢c grasp
on American society than his more objective and clinical con-
temporaries’, though his analysis can certainly be criticized for
underestimatingthe implications forelite power and controlof
‘rapidtechnologicaltransformations,intenseglobalcompetition
and ever-changing consumer tastes’. Yet he was, in Wolfe’s
words, ‘closer to the mark’ than the prevailing social scienti¢c
understanding of his era as characterized by ‘pluralism’ (the
idea that ‘the concentration of power in America ought not to
beconsideredexcessivebecauseonegroupalwaysbalancedthe
powerofothers’)and‘theendofideology’(theideathat‘grand
passions over ideas were exhausted’ and henceforth ‘we would
require technical expertise to solve our problems’) (see Wolfe
2000:379,370,378).
2
Introduction
Hunter’s book, though much more low-key and convention-
allyprofessional(Millsdescribeditasa‘workmanlikebook’by
a‘straightforwardinvestigatorwhodoesnotdeceivehimselfby
bad writing’), made claims similar to those of Mills about elite
control at local levels of US society. It is a study of ‘leadership
patternsinacityofhalfamillionpopulation,whichIchooseto
callRegionalCity’.His¢ndingswerethatthe
policy-makers have a fairly de¢nite set of settled policies at
their command. ... Often the demands for change in the
olderalignmentsarenotstrongorpersistent,andthepolicy-
makersdonotdeemitnecessarytogotothepeoplewitheach
minorchange.Thepatternofmanipulationbecomes¢xed...
theordinaryindividualinthecommunityis‘willing’thatthe
process continues. There is a carry-over from the minor
adjustments to the settlement of major issues. ... Obedience
ofthepeopletothedecisionsofthepowercommandbecomes
habitual. ... The method of handling the relatively power-
less understructure is through ... warnings, intimidations,
threats, and in extreme cases, violence. In some cases the
method may include isolation from all sources of support,
including his job and therefore his income. The principle of
‘divide and rule’ is as applicable in the community as it is in
the larger units of political patterning, and it is as e¡ective
... the top leaders are in substantial agreement most of the
timeonthebigissuesrelatedtothebasicideologiesofthecul-
ture.Thereisnothreattothebasicvaluesystemsatthistime
fromanyoftheunderstructurepersonnel....Theindividual
inthebulkofthepopulationofRegionalCityhasnovoicein
policydetermination.Theseindividualsarethesilentgroup.
Thevoiceoftheprofessionalunderstructuremayhavesome-
thing to say about policy, but it usually goes unheeded. The
£ow of information is downward in larger volume that it
isupward.
So,forinstance,Hunterdescribedhow‘themenofrealpower
controlled the expenditures for both the public and private
3