Power (social and political)

Political power is a form of power that is exercised by individuals or groups in a society. There are many ways that such power can be exercised. Officially political power is exercised by the governance eg the President, Prime Minister or monarch. This head of state represents the sovereign state power.

However, political power and its exercise is not limited to the governance. The extent of the power of a person or group is related to the social influence they can exert formal or informal. Where this influence is not confined to a particular country, we speak of international power. Political scientists have frequently defined power as the ability to influence the behavior of others.

Means of power

The construction and maintenance of power has traditionally been achieved by military power, the accumulation of capital and the acquisition of knowledge.

According to Rae Langton (1993 ) can political power and authority be measured by the ability to perform appropriate speech acts. Powerlessness on the other hand he sees as inability to perform the speech acts that you really wanted to accomplish. The author describes Machiavelli in his famous work The Prince ( 1532) the means to gain and maintain power and sovereignty.

Abuse of power

There are many historical examples of destructive and senseless use of political power. This happens mostly when too much power is concentrated in the hands of a few people, without room for political debate, public criticism and other forms of social corrective. Examples of power - abusing regimes are

• Despotism,
• Nepotism,
• Tyranny and
• Dictatorship.

To solve these problems, various procedures have been recommended and applied. Most of them involve the sharing of power (such as in a democracy ), limiting the power of wealth of individuals or groups and the establishment of basic rights for all individuals by Legislation and negotiation of a charter of human rights.

Separation of powers

The reconnaissance Charles de Montesquieu, the principle of separation of powers formulated by the political power of the legislative, executive and judicial powers must be separated from each other and coordinated. The three political institutions must grow personally as well as organizationally separate act from each other. There must be no space or protection for the abuse of power.

Political science perspectives

Within the normative political analysis, various power concepts can be distinguished, which allow a deeper understanding of the concept of power and its political implications. Robert Dahl, a prominent American political scientist, describes the aspect of decision-making as the main source and indicator of political power. Later, two other political scientists Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz, condemned this approach as too simplistic and added what they called the second dimension of power: agenda setting by political elites. Eventually, the British academic Steven Lukes the need shaping ( " preference - shaping" ) has added as a third dimension of power. He describes it as another important aspect of normative political power, which includes similar theoretical views as the concept of cultural hegemony. These three dimensions of power are now often considered by political scientists as the defining aspects of political power.

In the postmodern era, the debate is how political power is defined, been vigorously conducted. Perhaps the best known definition comes from Michel Foucault, whose work Discipline and Punish ( and other writings ) gives a view of power in which they appear embedded as organically into the society. He holds that political power is more subtle and part of a series of social controls and " normalizing " effects by historical institutions and by the definition of the normal and the deviant. Foucault defines power as the action on actions ( action- sur une of the actions ), arguing in a continuous transformation of Nietzsche's philosophy that power is essentially a relationship between various entities. He thereby assumes that power in human society is part of an educational and learning process, in which each plays its role in the power structure of society by the prime minister to the homeless.

Jürgen Habermas opposes Foucault's concept of discourse as a battleground of power relations, arguing that it was possible to agree on a common consensus on the fundamental rules of discourse in order to achieve a transparent and democratic dialogue. He argues against Foucault and Althusser now that power in discourse is not inherently necessary, and that philosophy can be completely distinguished from ideology.