Peter Bachrach Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Peter Bachrach (1918–2007) was a political scientist and a prominent analyst of participatory democracy.

Born in Winnetka, Illinois, Bachrach earned his bachelor’s degree from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and a PhD in political science from Harvard University in 1951. He joined the faculty of Bryn Mawr College in 1946. In 1968, he moved to Temple University, where he remained until his retirement in 1988. In 1980, he was a visiting professor at the Graduate School of the City University of New York.

Bachrach is best known for his 1962 article, “Two Faces of Power,” which he coauthored with Morton S. Baratz. Published in the American Political Science Review, it is the most widely cited article in the discipline of political science. In their article, Bachrach and Baratz argued that a lack of controversy may reflect latent power conflicts.

According to Bachrach, prevailing institutions and political processes could limit the decision-making abilities and the formation and articulation of concerns among disenfranchised groups in society. While most power theorists of the time studied decisions, Bachrach contended that power also could be reflected in “nondecisions.” That is, that some actors had so much influence in the political process that they could block decisions that would be adverse to their interests from even being considered. According to Bachrach and Baratz, “power is also exercised when A devotes his energies to creating or reinforcing social and political values and institutional practices that limit the scope of the political process to public consideration of those issues which are comparatively innocuous to A” (948).They asserted that this power meant that demands for change can be suffocated before they are even voiced. Non-decision-making, therefore, constituted a “second face” of power.

Bibliography:

Bachrach, Peter. The Theory of Democratic Elitish: A Critique. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967.
Bachrach, Peter, and Morton S. Baratz. “Two Faces of Power.” American Political Science Review 56 (December 1962): 947–952.
Power and Poverty:Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.
Bachrach, Peter, and Elihu Bergman. Power and Choice:The Formulation of American Population Policy. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1973.
Bachrach, Peter, and Aryeh Botwinick. Power and Empowerment: A Radical Theory of Participatory Democracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992.