PLURALISM & ELITISM (The many and the few)

Derives from the word Plural “Containing, involving or composed of more than one”. Central tenet of Liberalism Competition & disagreement healthy (J.S. Mill) Competing ideas -The truth can only be found through discussion when people are open to criticism (Mill)

Countervailing ideas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0BpfwazhUA

Central to democratic thought and practice. Countervailing groups (eg League Against Cruel Sports vs the Countryside Alliance) Opposes Marxists and elitists in suggesting in liberal societies there is a dispersal of power

Pluralism & Power Pluralism espouses the distribution, dispersal and separation of power and influence It opposes absolutism and monism It supports multiculturalism and can be found in Socialist, anarchist and Conservative thinking

Pluralism opposes elitism Elitism: social hierarchy natural and desirable Those ‘born to rule’ Traditional conservatism: we seek the security of ‘knowing our place’; provides stability Benevolent elitism: Disraeli's ‘noblesse oblige’; One Nation Conservatism

Elitism Those who went to public school: 71% Senior Judges 31% MPs 50% the Cabinet 50% Lords 43% newspaper columnists 45% public body chairs

Elitism Oxbridge: 75% Senior Judges 50% Cabinet 47% newspaper columnists 44% chairs of public bodies 38% Lords 24% MPs In Attlee’s government (1945) there were 28 from public schools, including 7 from Eton

A pluralist state functions as: A minimal and neutral role for the state Locke’s arbiter state There is a choice of competing political parties allowing government by consent Electors express independent views The state should promote debate and safeguard individual freedom

In Europe pluralism began as a response to absolutism In USA it began as a practical response to limit state power Concerned with how society should be organised in order to achieve a just society Diversity is a social good Prevents the dominance of one particular idea Power should be dispersed

The Main Principles of English Pluralism Liberty the most important political value Liberty best preserved by power being dispersed Groups should be regarded as ‘persons’ (representative) Ideas of state sovereignty should be rejected

However, early English pluralists opposed the individualism of liberalism They saw groups as the main elements of society (family, village, community) Individuals have no independent existence (other than through groups) Group identity and representation an important element in the political structure (eg constituencies; rotten boroughs) Groups are therefore the building blocks of politics and the state

English pluralists therefore concerned with: State sovereignty (constrained by groups) 2) The role of groups therefore important in democracy

American Pluralism Particularly opposed to a powerful imperial state (Britain) Necessary to ensure powers of state limited to avoid groups being crushed Emphasised separation of powers Federalism Lobbyists/ ‘K Street’ corridor

Britain after WW2 Pluralism weakened by a growing, complex state (in the USA a welfare state failed to develop) Growing symbiotic relationship between civil servants and ministers Power monopolised within a closed and elitist state Thatcher suspicious of groups (eg unions) & emphasised a direct relationship between the sovereign government and the individual

BUT Assumptions of pluralism challenged by: 1) Civil rights movement (groups are not truly equal) 2) Anti-Vietnam War movement (government elites control our lives)

Modern pluralism State “hollowed out” in late 20th Century Pluralists see “voluntaristic solutions to deep seated structural problems” (Smith 2006) The Big Society? Postmodernists, like pluralists, reject monism (especially the Marxist belief in a single truth and explanation – everything linked to class)

Multiculturalism & Pluralism Multiculturalists see rights as group-based rather than individual (eg the rights of religious groups) Generally recognised as a good thing But Some Muslim women might want their rights protected as individuals rather than as Muslims So Dilemma: is there a tension between group rights and individual rights?