power_&_authority_policy_nets_&_lobbying.ppt.pptVIP

POWER & AUTHORITY:POLICY NETS & LOBBYING Political Organizations Proliferating Political Orgs Lobbying Strategies Lobbying Tactics Lobbying Coalitions Labor Domain Communication Core Who Wins Policy Fights? * * Textbook images of U.S. government gloss over the impact of political organizations & interest groups in shaping local, state, national public policies through lobbying on policy issues of great importance to their members’ and constituents’ interests. Political sociologists & political scientists study the institutional political structures and policy processes, which may help to answer some questions about such Congressional actions as: Why did the House Republicans’ 2002 economic stimulus bill return $21 billion in corporate minimum taxes (paid since 1986!) to General Electric, IBM, General Motors & others? Why did the Democratic Senate’s version of that bill propose to give personal tax rebates, extended unemployment benefits, and health coverage for out-of-work taxpayers? Why did the bill give $10 million to bison-ranchers like Ted Turner, but no subsidies for depleted food pantries? Power Is Relational Power is inherently the property of a relationship between two or more actors. Max Weber’s two famous definitions explicitly asserted that power (Macht) is not the resources held by an actor, but occurs during situated interactions among actors with potentially opposed interests and goals. ‘Power’ is the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which that probability rests. (1947:152) We understand by ‘power’ the chance of a man or a number of men to realize their own will in a social action even against the resistance of others who are participating in the action. (1968:962) Some power is based on force (coercion). But, if actors willingly assent or consent to obey another’s commands, power becomes legitimate authority (Herrschaft), which may be