Politics: The Basics, 4th Edition

Yet important differences of perspective do remain (Table 5.3). In the
end readers will need to make a personal judgement about the relative
importance of the issues discussed and the strength of the empirical
findings. Are the similarities between the members of the ‘power
elite’ so great that the ideological and policy differences they profess
pale into insignificance? Does the welfare state represent a triumph
for popular mass influence, or is it merely a device to cloak the
continuing injustice of the capitalist economic system? Does the
machinery of pressure groups and elections have a real effect on the
policy process? These are real and fascinating issues on which both
one’s own value judgements and a greater knowledge of how actual
political systems work must have an influence.

Political change

An examination of past history suggests only the inevitability of
political change and the likelihood that the twenty-first century will
not be much like the twentieth. This in itself is worth stressing since
it is all too easy to assume that the future will represent a con-
tinuation of the present. Many readers of this book will have lived all
their lives in a relatively stable, prosperous and peaceful liberal

PROCESSES 117

3 Political change in democracy does not necessarily result in social

and economic equality.

4 Power is conditioned by cultural and ideological assumptions that

reflect those of existing dominant minorities.

5 Competitive party systems enable, but do not ensure, that groups

of like-minded people can influence the policy process.

Table 5.3 Summary: critics of pluralism

Elitist Marxist

Descriptive Elite rule not pressure groups Capitalist manipulation

subverts democracy

Prescriptive Mob rule undesirable Working-class revolution OK