ASSIGNEMENT NO 3

SUBMITTED TO: Professor Zia ur Rahman

SUBMITTED BY: Muhammad Mubeen Ahmad

ROLL NUM: O8

TOPIC: Power and Authority

SUBJECT: Sociology

CLASS: BS Physics
 Power

What is Power?

In social science and politics, power is the ability to influence or outright control
the behavior of people. The term "authority" is often used for power perceived as
legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the
exercise of power is accepted as endemic to humans as social beings. In business,
power is often expressed as being "upward" or "downward". With downward
power, a company's superior influences sub ordinates. When a company exerts
upward power, it is the subordinates who influence the decisions of their leader
or leaders.

The use of power need not involve force or the threat of force. At one extreme, it
closely resembles what an English-speaking person might term "influence",
although some authors distinguish "influence" as a means by which power is
used. One such example is soft power, as compared to hard power.

Theories:

Five bases:

Social psychologists John R. P. French and Bertram Raven, in a now-classic study

(1959), developed a schema of sources of power by which to analyses how power
plays work (or fail to work) in a specific relationship.

Legitimate power:
 Also called "positional power," it is the power of an
individual because of the relative position and duties of the holder of the position
within an organization. Legitimate power is formal authority delegated to the
holder of the position. It is usually accompanied by various attributes of power
such as a uniform, a title, or an imposing physical office.

Referent power:

Referent power is the power or ability of individuals to attract

others and build loyalty. It is based on the charisma and interpersonal skills of the
power holder. A person may be admired because of specific personal trait, and
this admiration creates the opportunity for interpersonal influence. Here the
person under power desires to identify with these personal qualities, and gains
satisfaction from being an accepted follower. Nationalism and patriotism count
towards an intangible sort of referent power. For example, soldiers fight in wars
to defend the honor of the country. This is the second least obvious power, but
the most effective. Advertisers have long used the referent power of sports
figures for products endorsements, for example. The charismatic appeal of the
sports star supposedly leads to an acceptance of the endorsement, although the
individual may have little real credibility outside the sports arena. Abuse is
possible when someone that is likable, yet lacks integrity and honesty, rises to
power, placing them in a situation to gain personal advantage at the cost of the
group's position. Referent power is unstable alone, and is not enough for a leader
who wants longevity and respect. When combined with other sources of power,
however, it can help a person achieve great success.

Expert power:
 Expert power is an individual's power deriving from the skills or
expertise of the person and the organization's needs for those skills and expertise.
Unlike the others, this type of power is usually highly specific and limited to the
particular area in which the expert is trained and qualified. When they have
knowledge and skills that enable them to understand a situation, suggest
solutions, use solid judgment, and generally outperform others, then people tend
to listen to them. When individuals demonstrate expertise, people tend to trust
them and respect what they say. As subject matter experts, their ideas will have
more value, and others will look to them for leadership in that area.

Reward power:

Reward power depends on the ability of the power wielder to

confer valued material rewards; it refers to the degree to which the individual can
give others a reward of some kind such as benefits, time off, desired gifts,
promotions or increases in pay or responsibility.

Principles in interpersonal relationships:

According to Guerrero, Laura K., and Peter A. Andersen in "Close encounters:

Communication in Relationships".

Power as a Perception: Power is a perception in a sense that some people can

have objective power, but still have trouble influencing others. People who use
power cues and act powerfully and proactively tend to be perceived as powerful
by others. Some people become influential even though they don't overtly use
powerful behavior.
Power as a Relational Concept: Power exists in relationships. The issue here is
often how much relative power a person has in comparison to one's partnered.
Partners in close and satisfying relationships often influence each other at
different times in various arenas.

Power as Resource Based: Power usually represents a struggle over resources.

The more scarce and valued resources are, the more intense and protracted are
power struggles. The scarcity hypothesis indicates that people have the most
power when the resources they possess are hard to come by or are in high
demand. However, scarce resource leads to power only if it's valued within a
relationship.

The Principle of Least Interest and Dependence Power:

The person with

less to lose has greater power in the relationship. Dependence power indicates
that those who are dependent on their relationship or partner are less powerful,
especially if they know their partner is uncommitted and might leave them.
According to interdependence theory, quality of alternatives refers to the types of
relationships and opportunities people could have if they were not in their
current relationship. The principle of least interest suggests that if a difference
exists in the intensity of positive feelings between partners, the partner who feels
the most positive is at a power disadvantage. There's an inverse relationship
between interest in relationship and the degree of relational power.

Power as Enabling or Disabling: Power can be enabling or disabling. Research has

been shown that people are more likely to have an enduring influence on others
when they engage in dominant behavior that reflects social skill rather than
intimidation. Personal power is protective against pressure and excessive
influence by others and/or situational stress. People who communicate through
self confidence and expressive, composed behavior tend to be successful in
achieving their goals and maintaining good relationships. Power can be disabling
when it leads to destructive patterns of communication.

Authority

Authority:

Authority is the legitimate or socially approved use of power. It is the

legitimate power which one person or a group holds over another. The element
of legitimacy is vital to the notion of authority and is the main means by which
authority is distinguish from the more general concept of power. Power can be
exerted by the use of force or violence. Authority, by contrast, depends on the
acceptance by subordinates of the right of those above them to give those orders
or directives.

Types of Authorities:
The types of political authority were first defined by Max
Weber in his essay "Politics as a Vocation" and his other writings in 1919-1920. In
this essay he emphasized that the political authority that controlled the state can
be composed of the following types of authority, or what is called in German as
Herrschaft.

Traditional Authority: Power legitimized by respect for long established cultural

patterns.

Charismatic Authority: Power legitimized by extraordinary personal abilities that

inspire devotion and obedience.

Rational Legal Authority: Also known as bureaucratic authority is when power is

legitimized by legally enacted rules and regulations such as governments.

Max Weber on authority:

Max Weber, in his sociological and philosophical
work, identified and distinguished three types of legitimate domination
(Herrschaft in German, which generally means 'domination' or 'rule'), that have
sometimes been rendered in English translation as types of authority, because
domination is not seen as a political concept in the first place. Weber defined
domination (authority) as the chance of commands being obeyed by a specifiable
group of people.

Weber divided legitimate authority into three types:

The first type
discussed by Weber is rational legal authority. It is that form of authority which
depends for its legitimacy on formal rules and established laws of the state, which
are usually written down and are often very complex. The power of the rational
legal authority is mentioned in the constitution. Modern societies depend on legal
rational authority. Government officials wield this type of authority in most
countries of the world. Bureaucracies are the result of this type of authority.

The second type of authority is Traditional authority, which derives from long
established customs, habits and social structures. When power passes from one
generation to another, then it is known as traditional authority. The right of
hereditary monarchs to rule furnishes an obvious example. The Tudor dynasty in
England and the ruling families of Mewar, in Rajasthan (India) are some examples
of traditional authority.

Authorities:
National Counter Terrorism Authority:
The National Counter Terrorism Authority (reporting name: NACTA) is an Internal
Counterterrorism Authority of Pakistan. NACTA is mandated to devise a counter
terrorism strategy that should address short, medium and long-term goals and
devise action plans for their implementation.

NACTA was initially set up in 2009, administratively, but its powers and mandate
has been clearly spelled out in March 2013, under an Act of Parliament. The
NACTA 2013 Act sets up the framework of the organization.

Board of Governors:
Under the NACTA Act, the National Counter Terrorism Authority is to be governed
by a Board of Governors (BOG). The Prime Minister of Pakistan is the Chairman of
NACTA BOG while Defense, Interior, Foreign, Finance, Law and Justice Ministers
and one member each of Senate and National Assembly, Chief Ministers of all
four Provinces, Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, Secretary Interior, DG FIA and
Chiefs of Intelligence Agencies, Provincial Chief secretaries and Police Chiefs are
Members of NACTA's BOG.
According to the law the Authority has the following functions:
to receive and collate data or information or intelligence, and disseminate and
coordinate between all relevant stakeholders to formulate threat assessments
with periodical reviews to be presented to the Federal Government for making
adequate and timely efforts to counter terrorism and extremism; To coordinate
and prepare comprehensive National counter terrorism and counter extremism
strategies, and reviews them on periodical basis;
National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Nadra
Agency overview:

Formed March 10, 2000; 17 years ago

Type Government database
Jurisdiction Constitution of Pakistan
Headquarters Islamabad, Islamabad Capital Venue
Motto Empowerment through Identity
Employees 17,000

The National Database and Registration Authority, is an independent and

autonomous agency under Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan that
regulates government databases and statistically manages the sensitive
registration database of all the national citizens of Pakistan. It is responsible to
issuing the computerized national identity cards to the citizens of Pakistan,
maintaining their sensitive informational upgraded in the government databases,
and securing national identities of the citizens of Pakistan from being stolen and
theft. It is one of the largest government database institutions, employing more
than 11,000 people in more than 800 domestic offices and five international
offices. It also claims to hold the record for maintaining the largest biometric
database of citizens in the world.

Conclusion:

The dictator game gives no power to the recipient whereas the

ultimatum game gives some power to the recipient. The behavior observed was
that the person offering the proposal would act less strategically than would the
one offering in the ultimatum game. Self-serving also occurred and a lot of pro-
social behavior was observed. When the counterpart recipient is completely
powerless, lack of strategy, social responsibility and moral consideration is often
observed from the behavior of the proposal given (the one with the power).