Patterns of Power information sources

The Patterns of Power information sources have been chosen for the convenience of readers of the books and this website.  Most of them are accessible through the Internet.

Purpose of providing Internet links

Links to source material are provided in the pattern listings for several purposes:

●  They enable readers to check for themselves that quotes have not been taken out of context.

●  They can offer further clarification to the points made in the pattern listings.

●  They can form the basis for readers to research a topic more deeply, especially where the quoted material is supported by links to its own sources.

In electronic versions of the PatternsofPower books, the source material can almost always be retrieved by clicking on the link.  The URLs are listed in the endnotes of paper versions.  If source item has been removed from the Internet, it can quite often be retrieved by using its complete title or several words of a sentence within inverted commas on Google for example.

Choice of Patterns of Power information Sources

Sources have been chosen partly for the durability of the Internet links.  Preference has been given to sites which maintain material online for many years, so that readers are not frustrated by the disappearance of the relevant items.  This accounts for the heavy preponderance of quotations from the BBC and The Economist.  Other reliable and largely centrist sites include Prospect Magazine, Reuters and AP News.  Several newspapers also have reliable websites, but many show a more pronounced political bias – so care has been taken to point this out in the pattern descriptions.

A list of frequently used links, representing a wide range of political opinion, can be found here.  This material is complementary to the books and academic works consulted in the research, which are listed in the site’s Bibliography.

The BBC doesn’t charge readers for access, which is another reason for choosing it as a preferred source.  Most other media organisations (including The Economist) charge readers nowadays, though, or at least they require readers to register with them.

Endorsement of Source Content

When a quotation is used in one of the pattern listings, or in blog posts, it is only to clarify the point being made and to indicate that the view being expressed is not solely Hugh Winter’s opinion.  It does not imply editorial agreement with the rest of the quoted book or article.

The BBC has an editorial policy of neutrality, upon which its licence depends, so it has been taken as the source of choice when seeking a simple statement of facts – but the whole question of media neutrality is complex, as reflected in the pattern description of that topic.

The Economist offers opinions which have often supported neoliberalism, as described in the article Liberalism According to the Economist; the articled noted, however, that the magazine has more recently shifted towards a “pragmatic liberalism …a grudging response to democratic pressures from below”.  The editorial position of PatternsofPower.org is that power ought always to be at least minimally acceptable to everyone who is subject to it (2.3), so the pattern descriptions include criticisms of neoliberalism (3.5.9) and libertarianism (6.2.2.3).