Welcome to POL 101 Session

on

Civil Society, Elitism,

Mass culture
 Civil Society is

• the "aggregate of non-governmental

organizations and institutions that manifest
interests and will of citizens".

• the society considered as a community of

citizens linked by common interests and
collective activity.
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 According to the World Bank:

• “Civil society ... refers to a wide array of

organizations: community groups, non-
governmental organizations [NGOs], labour
unions, indigenous groups, charitable
organizations, faith-based organizations,
professional associations, and foundations.”

(Apr 23, 2018)

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• According to Habib (2003) civil society is the
organized expression of various interests and
values operating in the triangular space
between the family, state, and the market.
(Habib and Kotze 2002:3).
• This definition conceptualizes civil society as
an entity distinct from both the market and
the state.

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• G. W. F. Hegel (1770-1831) distinguished civil
society not only from the state but also from
the family.
• He viewed civil society as a sphere of
‘universal egoism’ in which individuals place
there own interests before those of others,
whereas the state and the family are
characterised by ‘universal altruism’ and
‘particular altruism’ respectively.
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• Karl Marx followed the Hegelian way of using
the concept of civil society. For Marx, the
emergence of the modern state created a
realm of civil society that reduced society to
private interests competing against each
other.

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• Political society was autonomised into the
state, which was in turn ruled by the
bourgeois class.

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• Marx, in his early writings, anticipated the
abolition of the separation between state
and civil society, and looked forward to the
reunification of private and public/political
realms.

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• Marx rejected the positive role of state put
forth by Hegel. Marx argued that the state
cannot be a neutral problem solver. Rather,
he depicted the state as the defender of the
interests of the bourgeoisie.

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• He considered the state to be the executive
arm of the bourgeoisie, which would wither
away once the working class took democratic
control of society.

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• The above view about civil society was
criticised by Antonio Gramsci . Departing
somewhat from Marx, Gramsci did not
consider civil society as a realm of private
and alienated relationships. Rather, Gramsci
viewed civil society as the vehicle for
bourgeois hegemony, when it just represents
a particular class.

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• He underlined the crucial role of civil society
as the contributor of the cultural and
ideological capital required for the survival of
the hegemony of capitalism. Rather than
posing it as a problem, as in earlier Marxist
conceptions, Gramsci viewed civil society as
the site for problem-solving.

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• Misunderstanding Gramsci, the New Left
assigned civil society a key role in defending
people against the state and the market and
in asserting the democratic will to influence
the state.

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• At the same time, neo-liberal thinkers
consider civil society as a site for struggle to
subvert Communist and authoritarian
regimes. Thus, the term civil society occupies
an important place in the political discourses
of the New Left and neo-liberals.

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 Elitism

• Aristotle held the view that some persons are

fit to rule while others are fit to be ruled
over.
• Elite means chosen few. Elite consists of
those persons who come at the top because
of their superior quality.

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• The Political Culture of a country is not
uniform and monolithic.

• Pluralism and elitism are two different

theories that are used to explain how power
is spread between individuals and groups in
society.

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• Elitism is the exact opposite of pluralism. In
elitist theory power is seen as concentrated
amongst a few groups or individuals,
including the government.

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• To use the same example as before; elitist
theory would suggest that only a few major
pressure/interest groups actually have any
influence, and that even they struggle to gain
power because it is concentrated in the
hands of a few members of government.

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• Pluralism and Elitism are two theories
centralized on the distribution of power.

• The Pluralist Theory can be described as a

general type of government where all
participants share an equal status whether it
be in possession, power, or rights.

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 Elitism

• In every country, there are select groups and

individuals who enjoy clout with their views
being heard with rapt attention and given
due weightage before taking any major
decision. These could be people having taken
birth in privileged class or having special
attributes like extraordinary talent in a field
or long experience in a particular field.

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• The views and opinions of such people and
groups are taken seriously, and they are
regarded as the elite part of the population.

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 Pluralism

• Pluralism is a belief system that accepts

coexistence of different power centers and,
in fact, an ideal system where no one has
dominance over others.

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• Decision making is based upon participation,
and discussion and views of all are heard
before arriving at a decision that is
acceptable to the majority of the population.

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• This is also a system that echoes the
sentiments of the majority. Hence pluralism
is close to the concept of democracy.

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 What is the difference between Elitism and
Pluralism?

• Elitism accepts that, in every society and

political system, there are certain individuals
and groups who are powerful and their views
are taken seriously in higher echelons of
government.

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• On the other hand, pluralism refers to
acceptance of diverse views and opinions and
decisions are taken on the basis of
consensus.

• Elitism is closer to dictatorships while

pluralism is closer to democratic political
systems.

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• No political system, however, follows either
of the two belief systems exclusively as the
elitism remains existent, even in the purest of
democracies around the world.

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• Those who support the elite theory of
government argue that a small, wealthy,
powerful elite controls government and
makes policy to benefit its members and
perpetuate their power.

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• In reality, government policy usually is the
result of a series of tradeoffs as groups and
elites fight with one another for influence
and politicians attempt to balance the
demands of competing interests, including
the interests of the constituents who elected
them to office.

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• Elite consists of those successful persons who
rise to top in every occupation and stratum of
society; there is an elite of lawyers, an elite
of mechanics and even an elite of thieves.

-Vilfredo Pareto-

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• Elites are the power holders of the body
politic. They are the holders of high positions
in a given society.

• The few who get the most of any value are

the elite, the rest, the rank and file.

-Harold Lasswell-

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 Defining points of the elite

• 1. Distinct qualities which make the elite.

• 2. Rule by microscopic minority.
• 3. Prestige, status and pre-eminence of the
elite.
• 4. Compact and united group feeling.
• 5. Possession of power, authority, influence
and other sources.

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 The Elite Theory

• The elite theory consists of the idea that

there are two groups: (1) the selected few
who govern the society because of their
ability, and (2) the vast masses who are
governed because they are destined to be
ruled.

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 Elite theory
• Elite theory assumes that men may be equal
in the eyes of God but they are not so in the
eyes of man. Inequality is largely found in
every state and society, thus making
everyone of them oligarchical in different
degrees.

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 Leading Elite Theorists

• 1. Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923)

• 2. Gaetano Mosca (1858-1941)
• 3. Robert Michels (1876-1936)
• 4. Harold Lasswell (1902-1978)
• 5. Ortega Y. Gasset (1883-1955)
• 6. C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)
• 7. James Burnham (1905-1987)

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 Criticism of Elitism

• 1. Elite cannot control the whole sphere of

political activity.
• 2. Wealth and political position cannot be
proportionate.
• 3. Elites are more concerned about their
personal interests than the interests of the
whole community.

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 Criticism of Elitism

• 4. Decision making does not lie solely in the

hands of the elites.
• 5. Ideas of elites never create values.
• 6. Elites are not cohesive, conscious and are
conspiratorial.
• 7. Elites do not rule with their inherent
ability.

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• Apparently the theory of elite (Rule of the
few) is opposed to democracy which is a
government of the people, by the people,
and for the people.

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 Mannheim’s Reconciliation

• “ The actual shaping of policy is in the hands

of the elite; but this does not mean that the
society is not democratic”

-Karl Mannheim-
(1893-1947)

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 Mass Culture

• Mass culture is the set of ideas and values

that develop from a common exposure to the
same media, news sources, music, and art.

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 Mass Culture

• Mass culture is broadcast or otherwise

distributed to individuals instead of arising
from their day-to-day interactions with each
other. Thus, mass culture generally lacks the
unique content of local communities and
regional cultures.

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• "Mass Culture" is a set of cultural values and
ideas that arise from common exposure of a
population to the same cultural activities,
communications media, music and art, etc.

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• Frequently, it promotes the role of
individuals as consumers. With the rise of
publishing and broadcasting in the 19th and
20th centuries, the scope of mass culture
expanded dramatically.

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• It replaced folklore, which was the cultural
mainstream of traditional local societies.
With the growth of the Internet since the
1990s, many distinctions between mass
culture and folklore have become blurred.

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 THE NATURE OF MASS CULTURE

• The historical reasons for the growth of Mass

Culture since the early 1800's are well known.

• Political democracy and popular education

broke down the old upper-class monopoly of
culture.

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• Business enterprise found a profitable
market in the cultural demands of the newly
awakened masses, and the advance of
technology made possible the cheap
production of books, periodicals, pictures,
music, and furniture, in sufficient quantities
to satisfy this market.

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• Modern technology also created new media
such as the movies and television which are
specially well adapted to mass manufacture
and distribution.

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• Mass culture refers to how culture gets
produced, whereas popular culture refers to
how culture gets consumed. Mass culture is
culture which is mass produced, distributed,
and marketed. Mass culture tends to
reproduce the liberal values of individualism
and to foster a view of the citizen as
consumer.

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• Cultural products that are both mass-
produced and for mass audiences. Examples
include mass-media entertainments—films,
television programmes, popular books,
newspapers, magazines, popular music,
leisure goods, household items, clothing, and
mechanically-reproduced art.

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• 2. In the affirmative sense, synonymous with
popular culture (the preferred term in
cultural studies and where the focus is on
uses rather than production), although some
theorists distinguish it from traditional folk
culture because it is oriented toward profit
and is organized according to the laws
governing commodity exchange.

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• 3. In the negative sense, a term used from
the 1930s to refer to cultural products judged
from the perspectives of both Frankfurt
school Marxism and anti-Marxism to be both
trivial and trivializing when compared to
serious high culture.

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 •End of Session

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