Explain and evaluate how the exercise of political power shapes the family, education, work and the media

What this dot point is asking

Module 2 of the TASC course studies how individuals interact over time to form durable institutions, and it places the exercise of political power and politics at the centre. This dot point asks you to explain what power is, how it is exercised, and how government policy and political ideology shape and change the institutions of the family, education, work and the media in contemporary Australia. You apply the perspectives to who controls institutions and in whose interest.

Power, authority and politics

Sociologists distinguish power, the ability to achieve your will even against opposition, from authority, power that is accepted as legitimate. Max Weber identified three types of authority: traditional, charismatic and rational-legal. Modern Australian institutions rest mainly on rational-legal authority, where power is exercised through impersonal rules, elected governments and bureaucracy. Politics is the process by which power is contested and exercised, and it works on institutions chiefly through public policy, law and funding.

Politics and the family

Government policy continually reshapes the family. Marriage law, including the 2017 legalisation of same sex marriage in Australia, redefined who counts as a family. Welfare payments, parental leave, childcare subsidies and family tax benefits shape household structures and the gendered division of labour. Feminists note that policy can either entrench or challenge the male breadwinner model, so the family is not a private island but is steered by political decisions.

Politics and education

Education is heavily shaped by power and politics. Governments set curriculum, control funding to public and private schools, and use education to pursue economic and social goals. The long running debate over funding models and the balance between public and private schooling in Australia is a political contest over equality and choice. Conflict theorists argue education policy often reproduces advantage for those already powerful, while functionalists see policy as steering schools toward shared national goals.

Politics, work and the media

Work is governed by industrial relations law: minimum wages, awards, the regulation of unions and workplace safety are all political settlements that shift with the party in power. The media are shaped by ownership rules, public broadcasting policy and content regulation. The high concentration of media ownership in Australia raises the question of whether a small number of owners hold disproportionate political power, an issue at the heart of debates about democracy and the fourth estate.

Evaluating who holds power

Three broad answers compete. The pluralist view holds that power is dispersed among many competing interest groups, so policy reflects a rough balance of pressures. The Marxist view holds that real power lies with the capitalist ruling class, and the state and its institutions mainly serve their interests. The elite view, associated with C. Wright Mills, argues that a small power elite drawn from government, business and the military dominates decision making. Weighing these views against Australian evidence, such as media ownership and lobbying, is exactly what strong answers do.

This dot point connects the institutions to the inequality module: because politics shapes institutions, it also shapes the distribution of advantage and disadvantage among the social categories of gender, ethnicity, Indigenous peoples, age and region.