POWER, INTRODUCTION, DEFINITION, ROLE, CHARACTERISTICS, SOURCES, FEATURE, TYPES OF POWER, IMPORTANCE

 

POWER

INTRODUCTION

Political science focuses on the theory and practice of government and politics at the local, state, nation, and international levels.

political science is a branch of study that investigates systems of government and their workings. Like other fields, it contains a large number of terms specific to the discipline.

In political science, power refers to the authority of the state to create and enforce laws, as well as control the day-to-day affairs of the nation.

DEFINITION OF POWER:

Power is frequently defined by political science as the ability to influence the behavior of others with or without resistance;

there are benefits to having power in life. Power helps bring more control in life.

ROLE OF POWER IN SOCIETY

Power is said to be held by a number of groups within society that compete with each other for control over resources and influence. Government supervision ensures that the outcome of the political process is in the interest of the majority of society.

CHARACTERISTICS OF POWER:

There are certain characteristics that the concept of power follows, such as authority is considered as a relationship between the two people, the subordinates, and their superior. The people with superiority frames the decision and transmit it.

SOURCES OF POWER:

There are three basic sources of power;

1. Force

2. Influence

3. Authority

and some other sources are

i. Reward power

ii. Coercive power

iii. Legitimate power

iv. Expert power

v. Referent power

FEATURE OF POWER:

It is the ability to exercise one's will over others or,

In other words, power is the ability of individuals or groups to make their own interests or concerns count, even when others rest. It sometimes involves the direct use of force. 

Force is the actual or threatened use of coercion to impose one's will on others.

TYPES OF POWER:

1. Economic power

Economic power is the basis of all powers, including political power. It is based upon an objective relation to the modes of production, a group's condition in the labor market, and its changes. Economic power refers to the measurement of the ability to control events by virtue of material advantage.

2. Social power

It is based upon informal community opinion, family position, honor, prestige, and patterns of consumption and lifestyles, "weber" placed special emphasis on the importance of social power, which often takes priority over economic interests. Contemporary sociologists have also given importance to social status so much so that they sometimes seem to have underestimated the importance of political power.

3. Political power

It is based upon the relationships to the legal structure, party affiliation, and extensive bureaucracy political power is institutionalized in the form of large-scale government bureaucracies. One of the persistent ideas has been that they are controlled by elites that are small, select, privileged groups. 

Political power can stretch across countries and across the globe. Political power involves the power to tax and power to distribute resources to the citizens.

4. Knowledge power

The term knowledge power to signify that power is established through accepted forms of knowledge, scientific understanding, and truth. For example, when we have knowledge on self-defense, although something physical, we instantly have power over those with the intention to harm us.

5. Military power

Military power potential consists of the resources that a nation-state can mobilize against another nation-state for purposes of military deterrence, defense, and war.

DEFINITION:

It is defined as the ability to affect the behavior of other nation-states through the actual or threatened exertion of force.

6. Ideological power

Ideologies are associated with power structures. Politicians seek power.

Their ideology and the social, economic, and political circumstances of the time influence what they do with that power when they have achieved it.

7. Distributional power

The territorial distribution of power can be defined as political decentralization and is expressed as a set of constitutional reforms, as it corresponds to the constitutions, the structuring, and discipline of the decision-making processes of the states.

8. Collective power

Collective power concerns the capacity of a group to realize its common goals, it is the combination of organization, cooperation, morale, and technology that allows one group or nation to grow and prosper while another one falters.

IMPORTANCE:

Collective power is behind turning points in human history as the transition from prehistory to civilization and the emergence of the modern state.