Lukes Three Dimensions of Power :: Power Society Symbolism Culture Essays

Lukes Three Dimensions of PowerPower serves to create power. nervelessness serves to re-enforcepowerlessness(Gaventa,1980256). Such is the essence of the on goingrelationship between the Powerful and the Powerless of the Appalachian valewhere acquiescence of the repressed has become not only common practice but away of life and a kernel of survival. In his novel Power and Powerlessness, JohnGaventa examines the oppressive and desperate stance of the Appalachian coalminers under the autocratic power of absentee land-owners, local elites, andcorrupt summation leaders. His analyses is based on Lukes three-dimensional consciousness of power from his book Power A Radical View. Gaventa applies thethree notions of power to the politics of inequalities in the Appalachian Valleyand, while demonstrating the inadequacies of the first or pluralist approachand the merits of the second and particularly the third dimensions, asserts thatthe interrelationship and reinforcing affect of all three dimensions isnecessary for an in depth understanding of the total impact of power upon theactions or inactions and conceptions of the powerless(Gaventa256)This essay will examine Lukes three power dimensions and theirapplicability to Gaventas account of the inequities found in the valleys of theCumberland Mountains. Reasons for the mountain peoples patience and non-participation will be recognized and their nexus with the power relationshipestablished. In this way, Gaventas dissatisfaction with the pluralist approachwill be justified and the emphatic ability of the otherwise two dimensions towithhold issues and shape behaviour will be verified as principal agents ofPower and Powerlessness.The one dimensional view of power is very much called the pluralistapproach and emphasizes the exercise of power through decision making andobservable behaviour. Robert Dahl, a major proponent of this view, definespower as occurring in a situation where A has power all over B to the extent he c anget B to do something that B would not otherwise do(Dahl as cited in Lukes,197411). As power therefore is defined in terms of B and the extent to whichA prevails is determined by its higher ratio of successes and defeats over B.evident behaviour then becomes a key factor in the pluralist approachto power. Dahls Who Governs? stockes the pluralist belief that thepolitical arena is an open system where everyone may participate and expressgrievances which in turn lead to decision making. Those who proposealternatives and initiate issues which contribute to the decision making processare demonstrating observable influence and control over those who failed alltogether to express any interest in the political process.The Pluralist approach assumes that in an open system, all people, not