What role does power play in political analysis?
Power is a foundational concept in political analysis.
Which actors can be involved in relationships of power?
Parties, states, corporations, and other actors.
What two aspects of power does its study examine?
How power can be conceptualized and investigated empirically.
What does directive power enable one person to do to another?
Directly influence the other person’s actions.
How does Dahl define A’s power over B in *The Concept of Power*?
A can get B to do something B would not otherwise do.
Who defines A’s power over B in *The Concept of Power*?
Dahl.
What positions does C. Wright Mills say a small ruling class occupies?
Strategic command positions in major corporations, the state, and the military.
What conditions must hold for Dahl to establish a ruling elite?
A well-defined group’s preferences conflict with other likely groups’ preferences and regularly prevail in a fair sample of key decisions.
What does gatekeeping power control in political decision-making?
Which issues enter discussion and decision-making and which stay off the agenda.
How does Schattschneider say political organization mobilizes bias?
By organizing some conflicts into politics and suppressing others.
What does negative power allow a president to do?
Block legislation and influence congressional policymaking through the veto.
Which author is cited for the concept of negative power?
Cameron.
How can divided government prompt Congress to bargain over revised bills?
Presidential disagreement can create an incentive to veto, prompting Congress to anticipate vetoes.
What is the social construction of ignorance?
Commercially driven research organized to shape what remains unknown and what becomes known.
Which strategies did the tobacco industry use to produce ignorance?
Emphasizing uncertainty, supporting friendly research, recruiting prestigious scientists, creating echo chambers, and attacking unfavorable studies.
How can firms keep risks and problem framings out of public debate?
By controlling which evidence appears credible, visible, and relevant to policy.
What does conceptual power enable actors to shape?
Human cognition through concepts and categories used to understand reality.
Who described struggles over social classification schemes in 1989?
Pierre Bourdieu.
What term did Pierre Bourdieu use in 1989 for struggles over social classification schemes?
Classification struggles.
Which author treats power as pervasive in social life beyond formal politics and open conflict?
Foucault.
Which author argues that power operates through knowledge, internalized conduct rules, and everyday interactions?
Foucault.
How does Foucault distinguish widespread power relations from domination?
Domination is more limited and does not describe every influence on conduct.
What does domination describe between actors?
One actor’s control over another.
What makes an order legitimate to those subject to it?
They recognize its authority as valid.
Which three ideal types of legitimate domination did Weber identify?
Traditional, charismatic, and legal-rational authority.
What long-term purpose does Agustina S. Paglayan attribute to state-provided mass education?
Maintaining order and preventing rebellion.
What did national elites expand after mass violence against the state, according to Paglayan?
Public primary schooling.
What social outcome did Paglayan say expanded public primary schooling aimed to encourage?
Acceptance of the status quo.
What kind of understanding of power do political studies often rely on?
An implicit or explicit understanding.
Which source is cited for the directive approach’s focus on observable decision-making behavior?
Lukes, 2005.
What does the directive approach examine when expressed policy preferences conflict?
Observable behavior in decision-making.
Which work and year reported Dahl’s findings on power across New Haven issue areas?
Dahl, *Who Governs?*, 1961.
Which problems and agendas does Carpenter say power can define?
The problems, debates, and agendas that structure human activity.
Which institutions exercise gatekeeping power over political discourse?
Political parties, legislative bodies, and constitutional courts.
How can a majority party gain a policymaking advantage?
By blocking bills from reaching the legislative floor.
How can media and platform algorithms shape issue visibility?
They can amplify some issues while silencing or marginalizing others.
How can a president use a veto to seek policy concessions?
By vetoing a bill and seeking concessions in a version Congress resubmits.
Which author is cited for presidential vetoes seeking policy concessions?
Cameron.
What can Congress do after a bill is vetoed?
Amend and resubmit it, or try to pass a version capable of overcoming the veto.
How does an anticipated veto differ from an actual veto in congressional policymaking?
Anticipation shapes which bills Congress submits; an actual veto can block or reshape a bill.
Which author argued that industrial interests reshaped scientific practices into mechanisms for producing ignorance?
Pinto, 2017.
How does Carpenter describe conceptual power?
The ability to shape the content and structure of human cognition.
Which tools can shape how people and things are classified?
Censuses, cadastral maps, tax systems, and regulatory definitions.
Why is the church's historical influence presented as conceptual power?
It could define and rank behaviors and shape beliefs.
How can internalized ideas about gender roles shape conduct?
They can shape conduct through gender categories.
How does legitimacy affect the precariousness of domination?
Domination without legitimacy is more precarious.
What grounds Weber’s traditional authority?
Customs and longstanding practices.
What grounds Weber’s charismatic authority?
A leader’s extraordinary qualities and personal appeal.
What grounds legal-rational authority, according to Weber?
Established laws and procedures enforced through bureaucratic institutions.
What do schools teach people to accept uncritically in Paglayan's theory?
State authority and its laws.
Which Chilean event is linked to increased primary-school enrollment in the course?
The 1859 Chilean war.
Which regimes does the course identify as first characterized by mass education systems?
Nondemocratic regimes.
Answer 22 questions on Power in Political Analysis.
1. Which statement best captures why power is a foundational concept in political analysis?
2. A researcher is developing a study of political power; what two tasks are central to that study?
Go over the full study guide for Power in Political Analysis.
Read the study guide →Upload your class notes and Revizly writes your flashcards in about a minute.
Flashcard maker