Full Description
An extensively revised and updated new edition of Olsen's Power in Societies, this book contains carefully selected and edited writings on the exercise of social power in contemporary societies. The essays cover four broad topics: power in social organization, theoretical perspectives on power, national power structures, and power and the state.
Contents
Preface -- Credits -- Power in Social Organization -- Problems in Defining Power -- Power as a Societal Force -- Forms and Levels of Power Exertion -- Power, Domination, and Legitimacy -- Power-Dependence Relations -- Power and Distributive Systems -- Power in Society as Resource and Problem -- Theoretical Perspectives on Power -- The Materialistic Conception of History -- Inventory of Marx's Ideas -- The Materialist Interpretation of History -- The Iron Law of Oligarchy -- The Ruling Elites -- Influence of Democracy on the Feelings of the Americans -- Sociopolitical Pluralism -- National Power Structures -- The Structure of Power in American Society -- The American Power Structure -- The Structure of a National Elite Network -- Elite Integration in Stable Democracies -- The Structure of Intercorporate Unity in American Business -- Upper-Class Power -- The Mass Media as a Power Institution -- Power and the State -- Paradigms of Relations Between State and Society -- Marxist Theories of the Capitalist State -- The State System and the State Elite -- The Reification of the State -- The Ruling Class Does Not Rule -- The Potential Autonomy of the State -- The Autonomous Power of the State
