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POWER
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| SOCIOLOGICAL TYPES OF POWER | |
| 1. Influence: persuasion, convincing someone of your views | |
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Types of influence: public opinion manipulation: propaganda (releasing info), political correctness (thought control), censorship (withholding info), chilling dissent (“big brother”), repression/coercion, genocide |
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| 2. Coercion: force, use or threat of use of force (some books refer to force and explain it as coercion) | |
| 3. Authority: socially legitimate/sanctioned from Weber we have 3 types | |
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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
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| NONVIOLENCE MODEL OF POWER | |
| 1. POWER
OVER: domination
and control over other(s) or objects
2. POWER WITH: social power with others 3. POWER WITHIN: empowerment, inner power within individual, sustains our lives, leads to power with, e.g. spiritual faith, self-confidence
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SOURCES OF POWER |
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1.
authority, human resources (access to); 2.
skills, knowledge,
expertise 3.
intangible factors:
charisma, status of person, prestige of position, morale,
leadership, competence, reputation, respect, honour, character;
4.
material resources:
money, property, wealth, natural resources, industrial output,
agricultural output, information, cybernetics, military capabilities,
demographic resources (people, populations, generations), good jobs;
5. sanctions (ability to impose and effectiveness of these)
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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 |
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WHY PEOPLE OBEY 1.
habit 2.
fear of sanctions 3.
moral obligation: ·
common good of
society, ·
suprahuman
factors, ·
legitimacy of
command, ·
conformity of
commands to accepted norms of conduct; 4.
self-interest: ·
prestige, ·
relative power
position, ·
direct/indirect
financial gain 5.
psychological or emotional identification with the ruler; 6.
zones of indifference, margin of tolerance; 7. absence of self-confidence among subjects in themselves, in their judgments, in their capacity to
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NATURE OF POWER |
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1.
Power as interactive process – relational concept 2.
Power as social
exchange, reward & punishment 3.
Power as space and
constraint/domination:
boundaries, power as magnetic field 4.
Power as autonomy:
independence/freedom 5.
Power as ritual and
symbol, communication 6.
Power as construction
and deconstruction of political reality, e.g.
media 7.
Power as higher social
and economic positions, e.g. social elites 8.
Power as potential and
purposeful activity 9.
Power as promotive and
preventive/balanced and unbalanced;
power as exertion, control 10.
Power as structure –
static, or process – dynamic 11.
Power as zero sum or
infinite amount, i.e. is power a scarce resource or it renews itself and
thus is unlimited.
12.
Negative or positive 13.
Conscious or unconscious 14.
Intentional or
unintentional 15.
Small or large groups
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| SOCIOLOGICAL MODELS/THEORIES OF POWER | |
| 1. PLURALISM: power
is distributed, based in diversity of interests competing for scarce
resources, limits power of one sphere versus other, organizational and
state centered
2. ELITISM: concentration of power in hands of small group of people with similar background, or small group of organizations; an oligarchy is the rule of the many by the few which is opposite of democracy 3. MARXISM: describes institutional power in capitalist power; ruling class is the economic elite, emphasis is on primacy of corporate interests, all power emanates from business class |
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