1. DYNAMICS OF POWER
Meaning of Power

2. 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 ( ), 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 ( ), Secretary of the Navy,

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. DYNAMICS OF POWER

11. 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

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. Power Elite