Abstract
The purpose of this article is to attempt to reclaim the concept of foundations of power as a framework of analysis and as an approach to influencing policy. The first section briefly re-examines the policy area that developed in the late 20th century United States and suggests that it was an illusion based on a small area of consensus and a large supply of federal funds. The next section questions the ability to find a new consensus. The policy arena of the previous century has fragmented into multiple sites that make a new common foundation difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. The last section considers postmodernism as a heuristic device for understanding and influencing public policy. In doing so it is possible to reconstruct the concept of the foundations of power.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arendt, H. (1968) Between Past and Future: Eight Exercises in Political Thought, New York: Viking Press.
Arendt, H. (1969) On Violence, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Arendt, H. (1986) ‘Communicative Power’, in S. Lukes (ed.) Power, New York: New York University Press, pp. 59–74.
Cahoone, L. (1996) ‘Introduction’, in L. Cahoone (ed.) From Modernism to Postmodernism: An Anthology, Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.
Clegg, S.R. (1989) Frameworks of Power, London: Sage Publications.
Cook, C.E. (1998) Lobbying for Higher Education: How Colleges and Universities Influence Federal Policy, Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
Dewey, J. (1927/1988) The Public and its Problems, Athens, OH: Swallow Press.
Foucault, M. (1980) Power/Knowledge, Brighton, UK: Harvester Press.
Fraser, N. (1989) ‘Foucault on Modern Power: Empirical Insights and Normative Confusions’, in: N. Fraser (ed.) Unruly Practices, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 17–32.
Gladieux, L.E. and Wolanin, T.R. (1976) Congress and the Colleges, Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath.
Graham, H.D. (1984) The Uncertain Triumph: Federal Education Policy in the Kennedy and Johnson Years, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Gray, J. (1995) ‘Senators refuse to save national service program’, The New York Times, 27 September, p. D22.
Habermas, J. (1979) Communication and the Evolution of Society, Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Habermas, J. (1984) Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. 1:Reason and the Rationalization of Society, Boston MA: Beacon Press.
Habermas, J. (1986) ‘Hannah Arendt's Communications Concept of Power’, in S. Lukes (Ed.) Power, New York: New York University Press, pp. 75–93.
Habermas, J. (1987) The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. 2: Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason, Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Hearn, J. and Holdsworth, J.M (2004) ‘Federal Student Aid: The Shift from Grants to Loans’, in E. P. St. John and M.D. Parsons (eds.) Public Funding of Higher Education: Changing Contexts and New Rationales, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Hofstadter, R. (1970) Anti-intellectualism in American Life, New York: Knopf.
Martin, J.R. (2000) Coming of Age in Academe, New York: Routledge.
Parsons, M.D. (1997) Power and Politics, Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Parsons, M.D. (1999a) ‘The Higher Education Policy Arena’, in J.L. Bess and D.S. Webster (eds.) Foundations of American Higher Education, Needham Heights, MA: Simon & Schuster Custom Publishing, pp. 615–633.
Parsons, M.D. (1999b) ‘The problem of power: seeking a methodological solution’, Policy Studies Review 16(3/4): 278–310.
Parsons, M.D. (2000) ‘The higher Education Policy Arena: The Rise and Fall of a Community’, in B. Fife and J. Losco (eds.) Higher Education in Transition: The Challenges of the New Millennium, Westport, CT: Greenwood Publications, pp. 83–107.
Rorty, R. (1987) ‘Method, Social Science and Social Hope’, in M.T. Gibbons (ed.) Interpreting Politics, New York: New York University Press, pp. 241–259.
Rorty, R. (1989) Contingency, Irony and Solidarity, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Schattschneider, E.E. (1970) The Semi Sovereign People, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Slaughter, S. and Leslie, L. (1997) Academic Capitalism, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Thelin, J.R. (2004) ‘Higher Education and the Public Trough: A Historical Perspective’, in E.P. St. John and M.D. Parsons (eds.) Public Funding of Higher Education: Changing Contexts and New Rationales, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Waldman, S. (1995a) ‘Sallie mae fights back: the brutal politics of student-loan reform’, Linguafranca: The review of Academic Life 5(2).
Waldman, S. (1995b) The Bill: How the Adventures of Clinton's National Service Bill Reveal What is Corrupt, Comic, Cynical – and Noble – about Washington, New York: Viking.