members. In the 1930s Schumpeter mapped out what was to become, with
Dahland others, thepluralistmodel. He reinterpreted democracy as nothing
more than a system in which rival e ́lites of party leaders vied for power through
elections; but, far from condemning this state of affairs, he insisted that
ordinary people could not, and indeed should not, have any more say in
politics than this power of electoral choice. (Much laterDowns, in his rational
choice model of party politics, tried to show that this did not affect the
democratic nature of Western politics.) From the left, many commentators
have attempted to show that Western democracies are indeed governed by
power e ́lites, or e ́lites based on a ruling class, and are thoroughly undemocratic;
but such commentators of course retain their conviction that an abolition of
capitalism will lead to political equality.
The various e ́lite theorists share no common ground when attempting to
explain the inevitability of e ́lites. Pareto had a complicated psychological
theory, linked with a pessimistic view of the human capacity to exercise reason
in social life; Mosca and Michels relied heavily on a theory about the nature of
organization andbureaucracyquite similar toWeber’s; Schumpeter believed
the masses were bound to suffer from the hysteria associated with crowd
psychology; and the list could be extended. There is no general agreement
among political scientists about the factual accuracy of e ́lite theories or the
desirability of the situation they describe. There are, though, few who would
care to deny that there is at least some evidence for the existence of e ́lites, if
only the relatively sanitized version developed by pluralists, and the less far-
reaching claims of writers like Michels in his classicPolitical Parties find
considerable support from much later and less biased research.
Emergency Powers
Emergency powers are special powers granted to a government or executive
agency which allow normal legislative procedures and/or judicial remedies to
be by-passed or suspended. In democracies such emergency powers are usually
strictly controlled by thelegislatureand are permitted only for the duration of
the emergency. Although the primary association of emergency powers
legislation is with wartime, or a national security crisis of similar dimensions,
governments in fact retain some such powers for domestic crises. Indeed
Edward Heath’s Conservative government of 1970–74 declared five states of
emergency to deal with industrial unrest, and an Act of 1976 makes permanent
provision for the use of the armed forces to undertake work of national
importance if, for example, those who would normally carry out such work
are involved in an industrial dispute or strike.
Northern Ireland’s internal conflicts have generated additional emergency
legislation which gives the government power to proscribe organizations and
Emergency Powers