Power, Elites and Ideology: A Commentary on 'Elites in Australia'.

The article focuses on the book "Elites in Australia". Elites in Australia is a useful book. It contains a wealth of hitherto unavailable information on the attitudes, backgrounds and inter-connections of top position holders in Australia. The reason this book arouses interest is that it purports to be about power. Power is a notoriously elusive concept and no really satisfactory procedure has been developed for its investigation. There are, however, three somewhat less than adequate approaches which are in common use, the issue approach, the reputational approach and the positional approach. The issue approach involves an examination of the decision-making process for particular issues to see who wins and who loses. The reputational approach involves asking respondents whom they think are the power wielders in a community or in a particular situation. The third strategy, the positional approach. involves the study of top institutional position holders, on the assumption that they are the real wielders of power. The book thus focuses on elites in Australia, not because elites are of interest in their own right, but because they are assumed to exercise power.