INTERDISCIPLINARY VARIATIONS IN THE PERCEPTION OF POWER: A STUDY IN IDEOLOGY

Abstract

There have been marked disagreements in the literature on the structure of power in American society. The authors suggest that this controversy is an artifact of ideological differences between sociologists and political scientists. This hypothesis is tested through the use of a pluralism-elitism scale. Political scientists are found to score toward the pluralistic end of the spectrum, while sociologists are concentrated toward the elitist end, thus providing preliminary support for the hypothesis.