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Elite Power, Manipulation and Corruption: A Demo‐Elite Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Eva Etzioni‐Halevy
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Extract

THE MAIN PURPOSE OF THIS ARTICLE IS TO CONTRIBUTE TO the continuing debate on the manner in which power is exercised in Western-style democracies from a democratic–elite — or what I prefer to term a demo–elite — perspective. This is to be done through a theoretical exposition placing this perspective in the spectrum of the main theories on the same topic, with special reference to the classical democratic–elite theories of Max Weber, Gaetano Mosca, Joseph Schumpeter, and Raymond Aron, and the contemporary pluralistelitist theories of Robert Dahl and Giovanni Sartori.

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Articles
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Government and Opposition , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , 01 April 1989 , pp. 215 - 231
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Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1989

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References

1 To be dealt with in greater detail below.

2 See for instance Edelman, Murray J., Politics as Symbolic Action, New York, Academic Press, 1971 Google Scholar; Mueller, C., The Politics of Communication, New York, Oxford University Press, 1973 Google Scholar; Quaker, T.H., Opinion Control in the Democracies, London, Macmillan, 1985 Google Scholar; Riker, W., The Act of Political Manipulation, New Haven, The University Press, 1986.Google Scholar

3 For instance, Caiden, Gerald E. and Caiden, Naomi J. ‘Administrative Corruption’, Public Administration Review, 37, 1977, pp. 301–8;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Johnston, Michael, Political Corruption and Public Policy in America, Monterey, Brooks/Cole;Google Scholar Nas, Tevfik F., Price, Albert C. and Wever, Charles T., ‘A Policy Oriented Theory of Corruption’, American Political Science Review, 80, 1986. pp. 107–19;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Peters, J.G. and Welch, Susan, ‘Political Corruption in America’, American Political Science Review, 72, 1978, pp. 974—84CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Caiden, Gerald E. ‘Toward a General Theory of Official Corrruption’ (unpublished), p.4.Google Scholar

5 Etzioni-Halevy, Eva, Bureaucracy and Democracy: A Political Dilemma, London, Routledge Google Scholar & Paul, Kegan (rev. edn), 1985; Fragile Democracy, New Brunswick, N.J., Transaction Books, forthcoming.Google Scholar

6 See e.g. Barber, Benjamin R., Strong Democracy, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1984;Google Scholar Pateman, Carole, Participation and Democratic Theory, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1970;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Wilson, H.T., Political Management, Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 1984.Google Scholar

7 Dahl, Robert A., A Preface to Democratic Theory, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1956;Google Scholar Riesman, David, The Lonely Crowd, New Haven, Yale University press, 1961;Google Scholar Dahl, Robert A., and Lindblom, Charles E., Politics, Economics and Welfare, New York, Harper, 1953.Google Scholar

8 E.g., Polsby, Nelson W., ‘Prospects for Pluralism’, Society, 22, 1985, pp. 30–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Dahl, Robert A, Pluralist Democracy in the United States, Chicago, Rand McNally, 1967;Google Scholar Polyarchy, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1971; Modern Political Analysis, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice Hall (3rd edn) 1976; Keller, Suzanne, Beyond the Ruling Class, New York, Random House, 1963;Google Scholar Sartori, Giovanni, Democratic Theory, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1962;Google Scholar The Theory of Democracy Revisited, Chatham N.J., Chatham House Publishers, 1987; Truman, David, The Governmental Process, New York, Knopf (2nd edn), 1971.Google Scholar

10 Mills, C. Wright, The Power Elite, New York, Oxford University Press, 1959;Google Scholar Domhoff, G. Williams, Who Rules America?, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice Hall, 1967;Google Scholar The Powers That Be, New York, Random House, 1978; Who Rules America Now?, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice Hall, 1983; Dye, Thomas R., Who’s Running America? The Reagan Years, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice Hall, 1983;Google Scholar Who’s Running America? The Conservative Years, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice Hall, 1985; see also Field, G.L. and John, Higley, Elitism, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980;Google Scholar Useem, Michael, The Inner Circle, New York, Oxford University Press, 1984.Google Scholar

11 See e.g. Offe, Claus, Industrial Inequality, (tr. Wickham, J.), London, Edward Arnold, 1976;Google Scholar Panitch, L., ‘Trade Unions and the Capitalist State’, New Left Review, 125, 1981, pp. 21—43;Google Scholar Schmitter, Philip C. and Lehmbruch, Gerhard, Trends Toward Corporatist Intermediation, Beverly Hills, Sage, 1979.Google Scholar

12 Mandel, Ernest, Late Capitalism, (trans. de Pres, J.), London, New Left Books, 1975;Google Scholar Miliband, Ralph, Marxism and Politics, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1977;Google Scholar Poulantzas, Nicos, State, Power, Socialism, (trans. Camiller, P.), London, New Left Books, 1978;Google Scholar see also Parenti, M., Democracy for the Few, New York, St Martin’s Press, 1980.Google Scholar

13 Block, Fred, Revising State Theory, Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1987;Google Scholar Nordlinger, Eric”A., On the Autonomy of the Democratic State, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard”University Press, 1981;Google Scholar Skocpol, Theda, States and Revolutions, Cambridge, Cambridge”University Press;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Tilly, Charles, As Sociology Meets History, New York, Academic Press, 1981.Google Scholar

14 Dahl, Robert A., Dilemmas of Pluralist Democracy, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1982;Google Scholar A Preface to Economic Democracy, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1985; Lind-”blom, Charles E., Politics and Markets, New York, Basic Books, 1977.Google Scholar See also Held, David, Models”of Democracy, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1987, p. 201,Google Scholar and McLennan, G., ‘Capitalist State”or Democratic Theory?’ in McLennan, G., Held, D., and Hall, S. (eds), The Idea of the”Modern State, Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1984, p.80–109Google Scholar (as cited in Held,”ibid.).

15 Parry, Geraint, Political Elites, London, Allen & Unwin, 1969, p. 157.Google Scholar

16 See, for instance, Therborn, Goran, ‘What Does the Ruling Class Do When It Rules?’ in Giddens, Anthony and Held, David (eds), Classes, Power and Conflict, Berkeley, Univer“sity of California Press, 1982, pp. 224–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 For instance: Evans, Peter D., Rueschemeyer, Dietrich, and Skocpol, Theda, Bringing”the State Back In, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Hindess, Barry, ‘Marxism”and Parliamentary Democracy’, in Hunt, Alan (ed.), Marxism and Democracy, London, Lawrence & Wishart, 1980, pp. 21–54.Google Scholar

18 See Therborn, , ‘What Does the Ruling Class Do When It Rules?’, op. cit., p. 244.Google Scholar

19 Weber, , The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, pp. 152—7.Google Scholar

20 Dahl, , A Preface to Democratic Theory, op. cit., p. 13.Google Scholar

21 Lukes, Steven, Power: A Radical View, London, Macmillan, 1974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 e.g. Held, , Models of Democracy, op. cit., pp. 275—6.Google Scholar

23 Lasswell, H.D. and Kaplan, A., Power and Society, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1950.Google Scholar

24 Sartori, , The Theory of Democracy Revisited, op. cit., p. 146.Google Scholar

25 There are also elites which are not located in institutionalized organizations; these are mainly elites of social movements.

26 E.g. Hindess, ‘Marxism and Parliamentary Democracy’, op. cit.

27 On the Autonomy of the Democratic State, op. cit.

28 Polyarchy, 1971, esp. ch. 7.

29 The Theory of Democracy Revisited, op. cit., pp. 147–8.

30 ibid.

31 See e.g. Muhaben, Joyce M, ‘Cycles of Peace Protest in West Germany’, West European Politics, 8, 1985, pp. 24–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32 The Theory of Democracy Revisited, op. cit., p. 34.

33 Berelson, Bernard R, Lazarsfeld, Paul F, and McPhee, W.M, Voting, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1954;Google Scholar Kornhauser, A.W Problems of Power in American Democracy, Detroit, Wayne State University Press;Google Scholar Milbrath, Lester and Goel, M.L Political Participation, Chicago, Rand McNally (2nd edn), 1965.Google Scholar

34 The Theory of Democracy Revisited, op. cit., p. 122.

35 ibid., p. 62.

36 ibid., p. XI.

37 ibid., p. 165.

38 ibid., p. 169.

39 ibid., p. 155.

40 ibid.

41 These elites may, of course, exert power and engage in manipulation and corruption of their own, but this is beyond the scope of the present analysis.