The American Political System 166 H01 (Lehman College)

Two Faces of Power

By: Peter Bachrachand Morton S. Baratz 

"The advantage of this approach, relative to the elitist alternative, need no further exposition. The same same may not be said, however about its defects-two of which seem to us to be fundamental importance. One is that the model takes no account of the fact that power may be and often is, exercised by confining the scope of decision making to relatively safe issues. The other is that the model provides no objective criteria for distinguishing between important and unimportant issues in the political arena."(Peter B and Morton S- page 948)

From this section of this passage, it reveled that power is exercised in more than one model. The two authors elaborated on one model confines the decision making to safe issues- as the other model provides no objective for distinguishing between the needed and the unneeded area in the political system. The political system excises and practice among the community testing how to handle "important issues" and what to do with the "unimportant" ones.

I've selected this part of the passage because it simply divided the power of the political system in 2 simple phase "important" and "unimportant". It gives the shocking fact that the power excised by those in charge only seem to show interest in what they and the general public believes are main issues. If only the general public sees that changes need to take action those who are in power ask them self is this important or unimportant issue in the long terms. This section of the passage also helped me understand when the political system uses their "safety net" when they see possibly conflicts with the general public. It makes me wonder, "Is the political system even designed to help the community?" "Who are they to say an individual problem is unimportant?'