Neo-Pluralism (Herman draws on this for his Propaganda Model)

General Assumptions:

1. Agrees that the strength and balance of a society depends on a healthy diversity of views. Questions the mechanism that protect and promote diversity of expression.

2. Agrees with the need for groups to have equal power in representing their views. The power of groups to represent their interests is roughly equal. No one group can dominate any particular issue all of the time.

3. Agrees with the ideal of for government to act as an impartial referee on behalf of the general good.

4. Disagrees that political life (at the level of the citizen and at the institutional level) can be separated from economic life. Economics affects both the political life of individuals and influences political institutions. Asks, for instance, how can the rights of citizenship be seen as meaningful, if a person does not have the resources to act on such rights?

5. The exercise of power is both visible and invisible--- being exercised not just through open debate and conflict, but also through the social construction of reality.