Van Dijk Notion Of Elites Analysis

Van Dijk’s Notion of Elites
The notion of the elites according to Van Dijk is based upon groups of people in the society who wield a form of power over other people. According to this notion, there can be various elite groups in the society, for instance, Dansk Folkeparti that operates in a similar platform of social difference. These groups usually have control or access to critical resources in specific areas. From this definition, one gets to see that elites can come from the political, state, scientific, corporate or social settings (Dijk, p.44). Their ability to influence matters in these areas makes them elites. In addition to this, elites can also possess the skills and resources to influence matters across various domain boundaries.

The DF uses the weakness of the increasing number of immigrants in Denmark to increase their overall political position. Social and ideological resources are also a critical aspect of the power resources that elites possess. These include status and prestige. Fame, influence, and respect are also vital social and ideological resources that constitute the notion of elites in society (Dijk, p.45). The difference between the major parties and the lesser ones in Denmark has been largely due to their reception by society, the ones which have been able to appeal more to the emotions of the citizens through its rallies, mass media, propaganda etc. has continuously gained more support from the voting population. Which is the reason as to why DF has been able to achieve this success, they came with strong arguments and scare tactics especially against immigrants, and these arguments were created in a fashion so the population would realize that accepting immigrants would in the end hurt the Danish

By having access to instruments of mass media and other systems of public opinion, elites are able to shape the opinions of people and this makes their opinions to be taken seriously even when people do not necessarily agree with them. They use this aspect to control events and shapes attitudinal postures in how people relate with events that occur in the society. Indeed, elites can use their power to shape the complex processes of social cognition to line up with their preferences and ideals. The opinions of these elites are not necessarily adopted by the society at large. With this aspect in mind, elites can as well use their powers to suppress or marginalize alternative options (Dijk, p.44,