Roles Played in U.S. Power Structure
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This study will consider the roles played in the power structure of the United States by the public, the mass media, political parties and interest groups. Interest groups and political parties have much more power than the public or the mass media in that power structure. The power of the parties has declined in recent years, but the recent victory of the Republicans and the shift in policies which that victory portends demonstrate that party power is still meaningful. Interest groups are increasingly powerful and that power is likely to be evident in the shift to the right which the Republican victory will create. The power of the media, for the most part, is only to observe and report on the elites with the real power. This leaves the public, which only has the power to react, as it did in the 1994 elections, throwing Democrats out and voting Republicans in.There are two ways to measure the power of the public---public opinion polls and voting. It might be argued that opinion polls give the public more power than it once had because such polls allow the public to tell the government what it wants and what it doesn't want in terms of public policy. However, this conclusion is based on a number of assumptions which ignore the facts of political power distribution in the United States. We read in Cigler and Loomis, for example, that polls are important because "they report what everyone thinks rather than only what those who bother to vote think. Since poll results can mak
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by 'television, campaign operatives, and individual candidates and their "packagers"'" (Cigler & Loomis, 1992, 186). In other words, the members of political parties are more concerned than ever before about being re-elected because the political parties are weaker today and cannot be depended upon to get a politician re-elected. Politicians must work harder to get money and support from rich and powerful people so they can manipulate the people through media packaging, get re-elected, and keep their power. When they do get re-elected, they must grant favors to the rich and powerful people who helped them stay in office.
One of the most powerful groups in the country is the interest group. Interest groups are especially powerful because they are able to bring together the wealth and influence of individuals and to focus on single issues or a narrow range of issues. In Cigler and Loomis, we read of the warning issued by James Madison about the dangers of interest groups which care only about their own needs and not the needs of the country (Cigler & Loomis, 1992, 314-19). Hedrick Smith, in Cigler and Loomis, writes that the "new-breed lobbying" carried out by interest groups costs much more than lobbying in the past. Also, intere
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Approximate Word count = 1917
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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