Nature, Forms

and
Consequences
of Power
“Knowledge will
give you power,
but character
respect”.
- Bruce Lee
 One of the central
concepts and issues of
political science is
power.
Who wields it? How is it
shared, checked or
monopolized? How can power
and its consequences be
controlled to gain benefits?
 You may not know it but
we may be affected by the
play of power, in its
political sense, in our
everyday life. In the same
way, each of us wields
power on other people,
things, or situations.
 Power in the natural sciences
can be easily established
through a single equation,
which signifies the quantifiable
nature of physical power.
Power in social sciences is more
complicated because it is
continuously being molded by the
dynamic nature of society and the
objective and subjective capacity
of man.
Dahl (1950) defined power
in society as the ability of
person A or institution A
to make person B or
institution B do something
that person B or
institution B, on his/her/its
own, would not do.
 In addition, in society
there are different forms of
power – from authoritative
power to economic power
*There are also many
ways in which power can
be expressed by
individuals or institutions.
 The extent of the
consequences of power
is dependent upon the
different ways, degree,
and the aims by which
power is expressed in
society.
 In their attempt to classify
and better understand power,
Barnett and Duvall (Pallaver
2011) created the taxonomy
of power with 4 major types:
1. Compulsory power – the
direct control of one actor
of the conditions and
actions of another.
2. Institutional power – the
indirect ways in which an
actor effects another.

3. Structural power – basically

looks at the position and the
roles of various actors in
relation to each other.

4. Productive power – similar

to structural power that
looks into the relative
position of the actors, the
social production of their
roles, and how the roles
affect the actor’s
perceptions and actions.
 According to
Aristotle in his
Politics, there are
situations where
power in government
is corrupted by the
personal and selfish
goals of individuals.
 In studying politics, we
must be aware and
accept the fact that
power, as a central
concept, is dynamic and
has different forms,
depending on who is
imposing power, and how
that power is expressed.