Alvin A.

Emolaga

Prof. Apple Kate Sabar

CAS-01-501A

September 28, 2016

CHAPTER IX POLITICS AS THE VALUE ALLOCATION PROCESS

The Elites Approach

Politics is one of the most complex things in this world. It is like a diamond which is
multifaceted in nature. Ones understanding about Politics is dependent on how ones political
knowledge was obtained. It can be through discernment of things in his environment, it can be
through the influence of the people around him or most especially through his readings. Part of
todays humanity is its expression, their understanding about politics, or I prefer to call political
opinions. It gives people self-satisfaction by dropping comments and criticism on every issue
trending on surface. But most of the times it pushes them to their curves and make things much
more complicated. Political opinion is not equal to Political Analysis. Whereas, Political opinion
is a mere expression of beliefs that would cause clash of perception while Political Analysis is an
expression of knowledge with deeper acumen that aims to give solution to a political problem. It
is a clear evidence of the adage Little Knowledge is Dangerous. So in understanding Politics,
Reading is the cornerstone. It is the answer why we were first taught how to read letters before
writing them when we were young. Application comes after Learning from reading and by
reading it develops our intellectual capacity and shapes us to be more adept on understanding
politics. Through it, we will be able to criticize objectively on the issues, easily grasp
circumstances and give us a fast hint for a solution that might solve a certain political issue.
Reading is an implied fuel of a Political Science major student like me to our success in
our field. We should always be ready to political questions that would be asked to us. One test

that will determine the level of the knowledge of a political science student is to enthusiastically
answer these questions.
How does politics work?
How does a political system handle the incredibly difficult and complicated value allocations
that are the stuff of politics?
How major policy decisions are made in your country?
Ofcourse while reading the questions there are things that you cant resist to express.
But take a look again to your ideas and identify if it is a political opinion or a political analysis.
To help you transform your ideas into an apparent political analysis let me give you this
discussion about Politics as a Value Allocation Process.
Politics as a Value Allocation Process
Politics as a Value Allocation Process chapter details three extremely political
analytic explanations of the value allocation process. There are three broad approaches termed
(1) the elite approach, (2) the class approach and (3) the group approach. Each approach provides
a different explanation of how politics works, how influence is exercised, and what political
forces seem to shape political decision. No country or political system is likely to operate exactly
like any of these three analytics approaches. Rather, each approach is a rich illustration of a
pattern of power and decision making that is prevalent in some system at a given point of time.
Lets discuss first about the elite approach.
Elite Approach
In Elite approach there are central two concepts to the explanation of its value allocation
process. First, Politics is defined in a straightforward manner as the struggle for power. Second,

the political world is characterized by political stratification. Political Stratification means that
the population is segmented into separate groups that are in layers (or strata) with higher or
lower power. There are 2 major strata the Political Elite and the mass. Political Elite is the
stratum of the Population that does more of what there is to do (in the policy process) and gets
more of what there is to get (in the allocation of values) on the other hand, mass is the stratum
that does less and gets less.
The best visual representation of the Elite theory is the power pyramid. Whereas, the elite
composed of relatively small number of individuals who are in dominant position on top of the
large mass. In between of the elite and the mass there is this third stratum called the
understracture which composed of political officials and state administrators who carry out the
policy directives of the elite.
A well-known American application of the elite approach is the Power Elite by C. Wright
Mills. Mills concludes that political power in American society resides in the controlling
positions in the hierarchies of the societys most powerful institutions. In particular, Mills
identifies three key groups that compose the American power elite: (1) the warlords in the
military establishment, (2) the corporation chieftains in the economic sector, and (3) the
political directorate composed of those in the top positions in the political system. The
members of the elite tend to come from similar social and educational backgrounds, to circulate
among major positions in each of the three key institutional structures.
The value allocation process is explained primarily in terms of the actions of the elite.
Some members of the elite decide that a particular public policy decision is in the elites interest.
A discussion then occurs within the elite, to determine whether this policy should be enacted and
how it should be implemented. If there is a general consensus among those members of the elite

instruct the relevant members of the understructure to perform the policy-making and policyimplementation activities that serve the elites interest.
In the elite explanation of the policy process, the active elites are subject to little direct
influence from the mass or even from the understracture of the governmental officials. The mass
is politically aphathetic and impotent, and the policy is imposed on this large proportion of the
population. The understructure follows the directives of the elite because its members depend on
the elites power and resources as the basis of their own political positions and authority.
-We were fed by the definition of politics as from the greek word politicos means
relating to citizen and something like that, but according to the modern political scientist, David
Easton, Politics is the authoritative allocation by the political system of values for society. Since
politics regards to allocation or distribution of resources etc, and is a struggle of power thereby
there is also a distribution of power to who may exercise the power of distribution and allocation
of scarce resources and the implementation of policy. And that is the Value Allocation process.
Mass participation is contrary to its number.
Based on the history countries with a political system that adopts Elite approach where
system is dominated by an elite seems to create an evident discrimination and abuse of powers.
Since all the decision form allocation, distribution and implementation of policies vested entirely
to the small group called elites all action, implementation and distribution acted by it will be
based on what will be more beneficial to them disregarding its effect to the mass since the mass
is politically apathetic and impotent policies are imposed on this large proportion of the
population.

The author stated in this chapter that half of the contemporary countries are authoritarian
or totalitarian systems. This kind of system has met the criteria of being Elite-based Political
System. If that so, a democratic country is a non-elitism system?
. Philippine has a limited mandate and freedom to criticize and oppose leadership but it
does not limiting the elites to dominate the system. The framers of the constitution aim to
promote democracy to the fullest. But even the constitution provided that every citizen has the
right of suffrage (1) to vote and (2) to run we cannot deny the fact that elites still managed to
possess a government post. Anyone may run but they cant because the resources and machinery
for the campaign limits the capability of an individual. Anyone may run but they cant for the
reason that Filipino tends to dwell on someone came from an established family clan. Anyone
may run but they cant due of the incompetence of their educational attainment and credentials.
Anyone may run but they cant as they have not yet proven themselves worthy like what
Trillianes did before. Anyone may but they cant. Thereby, we are still under the warlords, the
corporation chieftains and the political directorates. Politics sucks.