Week 2 Reflection Blog
This week, we talked about pluralism, catallaxy, and public choice theory. With the three topics that we have discussed, what I am most engrossed about is pluralism, most especially, elite pluralism. David Marsh defined elite pluralism by agreeing that there is a plurality of power, however, he also argues that there are some groups that are more powerful than the others (Cook, 2011). This topic hooked me the most because it helped me realize more about what is happening in our country. That yes, there are many interest groups acting in the political field and yet, there are the elites who play a huge role in influencing not just the consciousness but also the decision making of people and mostly the government by shaping and influencing them through their values which leads to the satisfaction of their interests and preferences. You can clearly see it here in our country as many of the elites are able to influence the government to push through with their interests more than the interests of the masses.
In our discussion thread for this week, we were asked about the policy of wearing face shields. And like what I have said in the discussion thread, there is pluralism in the said issue and it is elite pluralism. There are many opinions regarding the use of face shields, however, the preference of the elites, which was to continue the use of such protection, was the one that prevailed. Also, we were asked if the outcome is pareto-optimal. Honestly, I don’t think that nothing in this country will have such an outcome that is not pareto-optimal as I believe that no one can be better off without sacrificing the welfare of others, especially in our country wherein almost everyone is greedy and do not care whether they affect others negatively just for the sake of their success and well-being. With this lesson, I was able to reflect on some of the problems that the Philippines is facing and I hope to come up with solutions even small, that can somehow lessen the issues that we face today.
Reference:
Cook. S. (2011, October 13). Elite Pluralism. Retrieved from https://revisesociology.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/4-elite-pluralism/