Power and Politics - The Pluralist Approach

Power is dispersed among many competing roups

• Wealth is a factor, but so a prestige, organisational clout ad personal charisma
• Some power is avaiable to almost everyone
• The state is a neutral party that reresents the groups of every group within society

Dahl

• Key decisions are made by a range of different grous
• Over time power becomes increasingly diffuse
• In modern representative democracies there a few direct oppurtnites for the mass of people to become directly involed in making decisios
• But they can voteor join pressure groups

Crticism

Power is cocentrated in the hands of a relatively small number of people or groups.

Becuase…