Lukes perspective of power

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C H Thompson's avatarsociologytwynham.com

by Sam Cook a former student

Stephen Lukes’ perspective on power

Though Weber’s definition is accepted by many sociologists as their starting point in understanding power in society, many sociologists thought it was too narrow a definition. In 1974 Stephen Lukes’ put forward his ‘radical’ view of power.

According to Stephen Lukes there are three faces of power rather than one which is explained in accessible detail when applied to the family.

1.THE FIRST FACE OF POWER: SUCCESS IN DECISION MAKING

  • Pluralists have adopted this approach. Pluralist theories argue that power can be seen from the outcome of a decision making process. Whoever gets their way has all the power!
  • Example, A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that B would not otherwise do. This is evident in the clip below:

2.THE SECOND FACE OF POWER: MANAGING THE AGENDA

  • Critics of…

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2) Lukes’ 3 faces of power

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Sam Cook's avatarRevise Sociology

Stephen Lukes said Sociologists should study power as having 3 “faces”.

The first face – The issue method

This is based upon the work of Dahl who said that person who wins and argument, or an issue, has the power. This fits with the Classical Pluralist approach to power.

i.e. a parent wins an argument with their child, so they have the power.

The second face – Setting the Agenda

Lukes said you have real power if you can set the agenda. This is because you can decide what will be argued about, therefore dictating the situation.

i.e. The chairman in a meeting has the power as he can decide what is talking about, which means he isn’t at risk of being challenged as he can then just change the topic of discussion.

The third face – Manipulating the view of others

The first two faces of power describe how power can…

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The scandal behind World Vision

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ebrad12's avatarhomeless + loveless

World Vision is an internationally known nonprofit. This particular organization aides in transforming communities through child sponsorship. 

In June 2009, World Vision was caught in the middle of a fraud case in Liberia. Three former employees were accused of stealing food and materials intended for helping people recovering from the civil war, and then sold the products for profits in local markets. 

Not only did corruption occur in foreign countries, but dishonesty is prevalent here in America. A commentor on a Wolrd Vision Storycommenter adds, “I used to work for World Vision…in fundraising actually I got to personally keep 75% of everything I collected from my donors as my ‘salary,’ It is interesting why people fundraising for people in need get to keep such a large percentage of the donation. 

Another interesting aspect of this nonprofit is to see how much the CEO makes a year. According to Charity Navigator, the…

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