Concept Of Power In Politics

How can we understand power in politics?

As a central concept within Western social theory, the study of power has been tackled in many ways, providing diverse and valuable insights. When seeking to comprehend the presence of power in politics, it is important to look at the relations of power that are present within a political structure. To consider the concept of power in a political domain, questions such as, “how is power distributed within the state and its citizens?” and “What is the power structure and what kind of power is being exercised?” must be kept in mind.

There are three kinds of Authority that Weber defines, which he calls ideal forms of legitimate rule. The first one defined is charismatic authority, which is founded on

Foucault portrays power as a relational force that penetrates society, linking social groups in a network of mutual influence. As a relational force, power builds social organization and hierarchy, by shaping human desires and opinions, and by imposing discipline and order. For him power does not exist within the empirical world, rather, purely as a relationship with the capacity to be expressed even at the lowest level. This denies a centralized view of power, which states that power within a society is largely focused at the top, with no power reserved for the lower levels. In this case power as a faculty can be expressed on the individual level regardless of their standing in society or the class system. Power rises from a relation between two subjects, when one can influence the other into carrying out an action that they would not normally

In response to his definition, Bachrach and Baratz argued that power over others could also be exercised in more discreet manner within a social or political system, preventing some people or groups from advancing their own self-identified interests. As Bachrach and Baratz explain: Power is also exercised when A devotes his energies to creating or reinforcing social and political values and institutional practices that limit the scope of the political process to public consideration of only those issues which are comparatively innocuous to A. To the extent that A succeeds in doing this, B is prevented, for all practical purposes, from bringing to the fore any issues that in their resolution might be seriously detrimental to A’s set of