The essay considers the issue of power based on the Martin place siege, what power means and how uneven power relationships emerge and why they persist. The essay provides a theoretical perspective of the siege while considering the theories of power and which theory had been considered as a more compelling explanation. The scope of the comprehensive report is to explore how power relationships are established and continues to be reproduced in contemporary society. We have analysed through the theories of power, of how power has operated through different means. The report also focuses on what exactly power is? And how it should be defined. The fundamental process through which power operates in our society today. And the detrimental effects of power. It further focus on how power is gained and lost. The report seeks to address the attempt to solve the problems of power focusing on the recent siege emerged from the group dynamics of power.
Power could be defined as an essentially contested concept such as democracy, justice and equality. Consequently both power theories of power both are interdependent theoretical perspective on power.
According to modern day philosopher, Alessandra Tanesini (1999), believes that power revolves around the ability of a sovereign government. That is to pressure or intimate us into doing something that would be against our wishes.
However, this could be considered as useful and relevant way of thinking about power, as this has one key limitation that would highlight the need for a more sophisticated analysis.
Theories of power apparently includes pluralism, elitism and Marxism, pluralism which elaborates on how power is being distributed, while elitism, focuses on how power is concentrated and Marxism on the other hand relates to class conflict and economic power.
The anti -Muslim sentiment such as the martin place siege as well as the cronulla has sparked heated debates on Australian policy after. The Muslim Sydney siege was proved to be a racial tension. However the siege later had been declared as a terrorist incident for the purpose of the terrorism insurance act. In such case the government has taken actions in order to ensure that the suffered damages that arose from the incident would not be denied claims on the grounds of terrorism exclusions in insurance policies.
The martin place siege was considered to be a political motivation by the prime minister of Australia. The hostages of the crisis, were holding the Islamic black flag against the window of the caf??.
The above siege could be considered as both the pluralism as well as the elitism theories of power. We have analyzed the crisis based on Pluralism since the power had been fragmented and dispersed.
Barry. J ( 2012) believes that the existence of class or the political parties and the political interests would be most likely to testify the distribution of power. In terms of the Martin place siege the terrorism motivation provided a more effective means of representation. He further believes that in Pluralism theory of power can be more powerful in terms of the insider groups. For instance this can be considered as practically part of the establishment.
However, the critique of pluralism is that power is not dispersed, the state being neutral and the society is not equal.
According to the theory of pluralism, the idea is based on how power is being distributed. This model intends to indicate that power is distributed about among many people. For instance people, associations and unions. Therefore, in this model the public is considered as bystanders.
The Pluralists believe that power is dispersed and therefore fragmented. Groups provide a more effective means of representation. The model further indicates that the larger the group the more influence it will have. Policies are established through bargaining and compromise which tends to be fair to all in the end.
Kramer, R. M. (1999). argues that there is limitation to the pluralist theory due to the fact that the informal power outside the official decision making process often is underestimated. For instance the martin place siege had been based on ethnic and religious bases. This moreover, tends to overestimate the ability of the interest group which is outside the traditional elite spheres. As this influences the political processes and the outcomes. For instance the social political as well as the economic capital have been the key for success for decision makers.
This moreover is dependent on the power of competition as a means to alleviate both the social as well as the inequalities of the society.
As far as it concerns with the Elitist power of theory, according to this theory in every society there exists a small amount of decision makers , this are the ones that perform the key political functions and the monopolizes power. The larger class being ruled by the largely passive and marginalized in political affairs. Consequently the ruling elite would be drawn from – the higher echelons of the political office.
In the case of the above siege, we could analyze the whole case through the means of Elitist as the theory of power. For instance the case relied more on traditional and religious authority.
In this theory of power there are often competition between different elites for both election and participation from the pressure group.
This power of theory is where some of the interests had been un -organized , for instance some rely on others to protect them. For instance the poor needy
However, the critique of pluralism is that power is not dispersed, the state being neutral and the society is not equal.
Kramer, R. M. (1999). argues that there is limitation to the pluralist theory due to the fat that the informal power outside the official decision making process often is underestimated. For instance the martin place siege had been based on ethnic and religious bases. This moreover, tends to overestimate the ability of the interest group which is outside the traditional elite spheres. As this influences the political processes and the outcomes
CONCLUSION
Power is a complex concept, and could be defined in a number of different ways, for instance power can be something that is neither stable nor concentrated in the hands of few elite people. Power has been dispersed through the society. In order to understand what exactly power is? And how it should be defined. We need to understand the fundamental process through which power operates in our society today. And the detrimental effects of power. And also focus on how power is gained and lost.
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