DYNAMICS OF POWER

Meaning of Power

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Lord Acton, Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 1887

The essence of government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

James Madison (1751 - 1836), Speech in the Virginia constitutional convention, Richmond, Virginia, December 2, 1829

Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.HENRY KISSINGER, And I Quote

Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat.John Lehman (1942 - ), Secretary of the Navy,

1981-1987

• Power has to be acquired. Power may only be exercised.

• Power is a matter of authority.• Power belongs to an individual. Power belongs only to

the collective. Power cannot be attributed to anyone, it is a quality of social systems.

• Power involves conflict. Power does not involve conflict.

• In every case, Power generally involves conflict, but not necessarily.

• Power presupposes resistance. Power, first and foremost, has to do with obedience. Power is both resistance and obedience.

• Power is connected with oppression and rule. Power is productive and makes development possible. Power is an evil, a good, diabolical, and routine.

POWER

• Influence: persuasion, convincing someone of your views• Types of influence: public opinion manipulation:

propaganda (releasing info), political correctness (thought control), censorship (withholding info), chilling dissent (“big brother”), repression/coercion, genocide• Coercion: force, use or threat of use of force (some

books refer to force and explain it as coercion)• Authority: socially legitimate/sanctioned from Weber

we have 3 types• i) traditional: custom, habit, past practice, e.g. kings & queens• ii) charismatic: personality characteristic of a leader, e.g. M.L. King• iii) legal rational/bureaucratic: power made legitimate by institutionalization

of rules, regulations, policies, often codified into laws

POWER

• POWER OVER: domination and control over other(s) or objects

• POWER WITH: social power with others

• POWER WITHIN: empowerment, inner power within individual, sustains our lives, leads to power with, e.g. spiritual faith, self-confidence

SOURCES OF POWER• authority, human resources (access to);• skills, knowledge, expertise• intangible factors: charisma, status of person, prestige of

position, morale, leadership, competence, reputation, respect, honour, character;

• material resources: money, property, wealth, natural resources, industrial output, agricultural output, information, cybernetics, military capabilities, demographic resources (people, populations, generations), good jobs;

• sanctions (ability to impose and effectiveness of these)

POWER AND OBEDIENCE• OBEDIENCE: People obey through either coercion or consent or a combination of

the two, but in modern societies it is a form of conformity based on authority. Obedience is not inevitable, varies in degree depending on situation

• WHY PEOPLE OBEY• habit• fear of sanctions• moral obligation:

• common good of society,• suprahuman factors,• legitimacy of command,• conformity of commands to accepted norms of conduct;

• self-interest:• prestige,• relative power position,• direct/indirect financial gain

• psychological or emotional identification with the ruler;• zones of indifference, margin of tolerance;• absence of self-confidence among subjects in themselves, in their judgments, in their

capacity to DO

NATURE OF POWER

• Power as interactive process – relational concept Power as social exchange, reward & punishment

• Power as space and constraint/domination: boundaries• Power as autonomy: independence/freedom• Power as ritual and symbol, communication• Power as construction and deconstruction of political reality,

e.g. media• Power as higher social and economic positions, e.g. social

elites

NATURE OF POWER Power as potential and purposeful activity Power as promotive and preventive/balanced and

unbalanced; power as exertion, control Power as structure – static, or process – dynamic Power as zero sum or infinite amount, i.e. is power a scarce

resource or does it renews itself and thus is unlimited. Negative or positive Conscious or unconscious Intentional or unintentional Small or large groups

DYNAMICS OF POWER

THEORIES OF POWER

• LIBERAL-PLURALISM: power is distributed, based in diversity of interests competing for scarce resources, limits power of one sphere versus other, power should not be important.

• State is “neutral” referee

THEORIES OF POWER

• ELITISM: concentration of power in hands of small group of people with similar background, or small group of organizations; an oligarchy (rule of the many by the few). Elites legitimately rule.

SOCIOLOGICAL MODELS/THEORIES OF POWER

• MARXIST/RADICAL: describes institutional power as capitalist power; ruling class is the economic/political/social elite, emphasis is on primacy of corporate interests, all power emanates from business class. Many derivatives and variants. Class power.

Power Elite