Structure and process in the analysis of power in policy-making. Two levels of analysis: the short-term power of initiation versus the long-term power of constraint. British adversary politics, social democracy and the analysis of power and public policy-making.

There is a central debate in the social sciences about the concept of power which is linked directly to notions about how best to study and analyse public policy-making. Within this debate about the scope for the use of political power in advanced capitalist societies, some theorists argue that the government is capable of doing anything it chooses as long as it retains the support of the electorate and is responsive to the demands made upon it by competing interests in society. Other writers have argued that only a few actors in government and society actually wield the influence to shape key decisions and this limits the ability of the holders of political power to initiate policies which they desire. At another level some writers have contended that, while there may be some mobilisation of bias against radically reforming governments, in practice the government does possess an ability to shape its own policies, but that this ability is constrained by other centres of power in economy and society outside the narrowly circumscribed political decision-making process.

The realisation of these differences opens up an interesting area for study. While it is unlikely that we can overcome the lack of commensurability between theories which concentrate on different areas and levels of analysis, it does appear from the previous introductory summary that the analysis of power and public policy-making can be approached from two distinct directions.