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  • To Sum Up

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    Shoaib Ahmed
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    The document discusses the concept of power in social science. It notes that there is little agreement on basic definitions of power and that both the Weberian and Parsonian perspectives on power have major problems. Despite widespread use of the term, power remains a contested subject with competing theories and meanings. Soft power in international relations refers to the ability to attract and persuade rather than coerce through means such as shared culture and values, diplomacy, and using economic power to appear desirable rather than impose punishments.

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    To sum up

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    The document discusses the concept of power in social science. It notes that there is little agreement on basic definitions of power and that both the Weberian and Parsonian perspectives on power have major problems. Despite widespread use of the term, power remains a contested subject with competing theories and meanings. Soft power in international relations refers to the ability to attract and persuade rather than coerce through means such as shared culture and values, diplomacy, and using economic power to appear desirable rather than impose punishments.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    10 views1 page

    To Sum Up

    Uploaded by

    Shoaib Ahmed
    The document discusses the concept of power in social science. It notes that there is little agreement on basic definitions of power and that both the Weberian and Parsonian perspectives on power have major problems. Despite widespread use of the term, power remains a contested subject with competing theories and meanings. Soft power in international relations refers to the ability to attract and persuade rather than coerce through means such as shared culture and values, diplomacy, and using economic power to appear desirable rather than impose punishments.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 1

    To sum up, the two major threads in this discussion about power, the Weberian and the Parsonian,

    both
    suffer from major problems of definition (Martin, 1971: 244). These are just two instances of how power
    discussion attracts intense debates and disagreements. The purpose of this short discussion is to
    emphasize that power is one of the most central and problematic concepts in social science. Despite
    widespread use, there is little agreement upon basic definitions, with individual theorists proposing their
    own idiosyncratic terminologies of power (Bierstedt, 1950). Gallie (1956) confirms that due to the
    existence of competing theories and meanings, power is essentially a contested subject.

    Soft Power in International Relations


    Soft power in international relations is a form of power that has an attractiveness or allure to other
    states. It is based upon shared values, culture, and diplomacy. The resources that soft powers utilise
    are usually economic power, relational power and historical relationships.

    Unlike the way in which hard power uses economic power to impose punishments, soft power states
    use their strong economic position to appear desirable to other nations.

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