Tags: capacity, culture, decision making, positions, power elite
Author: Jasmine Brown
Date: April 26th, 2015
In this excerpt from the show Tyrant, the viewer is presented first and foremost with a quite literal demonstration of what C. Wright Mills identifies as the three central domains of power in society: the military, corporate and political elite. In this scene, the President of Abbudin (a fictional Middle Eastern country), Jamal Al-Fayeed, is consulting his counsel of advisors, among who are his uncle and leader of the military, Tariq, and his brother Bassam, a doctor recently returned from the United States. Thus there is a member of the political elite (the president), the military elite (head of the military), and the corporate elite (a doctor) all participating in the same conversation through which one can observe how their interaction leads to decision-making.
Due to his position as the president, Jamal possesses the most power in terms of the final say in decision-making and the ability to exercise his decisions; however his decisions are not made in isolation. Jamal most highly values the advice and opinion of his brother Bassam and therefor his decisions are for the most part Bassam’s decisions. So although Jamal may have the greatest capacity for power (as Lukes says), Bassam’s position as the brother wields the most influence. If we recall the definition of power as the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others, it becomes slightly more difficult to trace the seat of power even from a very observable and one-dimensional perspective. Perhaps Bassam is the most powerful elite member in the room; however this can only be observed through a two- or three-dimensional analysis.
Furthermore, the theories of Mills and Lukes have been largely influenced by the social structure of the United States as this was their primary area of study. It is interesting then to apply their thought to Tyrant, which is set in a very different cultural context. Here we witness family itself as an elite position within Middle Eastern cultures. Nepotism is an intrinsic aspect of this culture, with members of the same elite family commonly belonging to each of the three power elite domains. This also reflects Mills' idea that, for the elite, it is relatively easy to move between elite circles. In the United States, the military leader with his years of experience would likely have a stronger influence over the president’s decision than would the president’s brother. In the excerpt, however, we observed that this was not the case. Although the military leader is also a family member, the position of brother is more highly valued. In this example we can see that these theories cannot necessarily be applied universally; certain positions in one cultural context may possess more power than they would in another.
Author: Jasmine Brown
Date: April 26th, 2015
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In this excerpt from the show Tyrant, the viewer is presented first and foremost with a quite literal demonstration of what C. Wright Mills identifies as the three central domains of power in society: the military, corporate and political elite. In this scene, the President of Abbudin (a fictional Middle Eastern country), Jamal Al-Fayeed, is consulting his counsel of advisors, among who are his uncle and leader of the military, Tariq, and his brother Bassam, a doctor recently returned from the United States. Thus there is a member of the political elite (the president), the military elite (head of the military), and the corporate elite (a doctor) all participating in the same conversation through which one can observe how their interaction leads to decision-making.
Due to his position as the president, Jamal possesses the most power in terms of the final say in decision-making and the ability to exercise his decisions; however his decisions are not made in isolation. Jamal most highly values the advice and opinion of his brother Bassam and therefor his decisions are for the most part Bassam’s decisions. So although Jamal may have the greatest capacity for power (as Lukes says), Bassam’s position as the brother wields the most influence. If we recall the definition of power as the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others, it becomes slightly more difficult to trace the seat of power even from a very observable and one-dimensional perspective. Perhaps Bassam is the most powerful elite member in the room; however this can only be observed through a two- or three-dimensional analysis.
Furthermore, the theories of Mills and Lukes have been largely influenced by the social structure of the United States as this was their primary area of study. It is interesting then to apply their thought to Tyrant, which is set in a very different cultural context. Here we witness family itself as an elite position within Middle Eastern cultures. Nepotism is an intrinsic aspect of this culture, with members of the same elite family commonly belonging to each of the three power elite domains. This also reflects Mills' idea that, for the elite, it is relatively easy to move between elite circles. In the United States, the military leader with his years of experience would likely have a stronger influence over the president’s decision than would the president’s brother. In the excerpt, however, we observed that this was not the case. Although the military leader is also a family member, the position of brother is more highly valued. In this example we can see that these theories cannot necessarily be applied universally; certain positions in one cultural context may possess more power than they would in another.
