The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation39UNDERSTANDING POLITICSPower and EmpowermentPower is an integral dynamic of politics. Defin-ing, analyzing and building power is a vital andcontinual part of citizen-centered advocacy.Yet, power turns out to be one of the moreuncomfortable and difficult topics to address inour work.Power can seem especially monolithic andimpenetrable for people who have lived underregimes that deny or repress citizen participa-tion. Our experience has shown that peopleengaging in politics for the first time, and evenmore seasoned activists, often see power assinister and unchanging. Such a one dimen-sional perspective can paralyze effectiveanalysis and action. In reality, power is bothdynamic and multidimensional, changingaccording to context, circumstance and inter-est. Its expressions and forms can range fromdomination and resistance to collaboration andtransformation. This is good news for advo-cates whose strategies depend upon newopportunities and openings in the practice andstructures of power.However, programs promoting advocacy anddemocracy too rarely incorporate an under-standing of underlying power relationships andinterests despite the importance that analystsplace on these dynamics. The failure to dealwith the complexities of power can lead tomissed opportunities and poor strategicchoices. Worse, it can be risky and counter-productive not only for advocates, but also fordonors and others promoting development anddemocracy. (See box on next page.) Expertsand practitioners in the fields of conflict resolu-tion and democracy-building increasinglystress the importance of incorporating powerinto their analysis and actions. (See box onPower, Advocacy, and Conflict on page ###.)In this chapter, we attempt to demystify andreveal the many faces of power. We look atpower as an individual, collective and politicalforce that can either undermine or empowercitizens and their organizations. It is a forcethat alternatively can facilitate, hasten or haltthe process of change promoted throughadvocacy. For this discussion we draw onpractical experience and theory, particularlyrelated to poverty and women’s rights wherepower has been analyzed from the vantagepoint of subordination and discrimination.While this chapter focuses on defining power,in Part 2 of this book, we offer a variety oftools and frameworks for mapping and analyz-ing power and interests.3“...many leaders understand power negatively, as being control and domination; something that cannot beshared without shaking its centre, rather than seeing it in a positive light as something that enables ...”Zimbabwean 19991“Martin Luther King, Jr. defined power as the ability to achieve a purpose. Whether or not it is good or baddepends on the purpose.”Grassroots Policy Project, www.grassrootspolicy.org/power.htm, 9/6/01Facilitator’s NoteUnderstanding power involves both personaland political analysis of institutions andvalues. Since values reflect strongly heldbeliefs, analyzing them requires sensitivity.For this reason, exercises that deal with theseissues are best conducted in an environmentwhere participants feel comfortable andsecure with each other.Power and Empowerment3The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation40The Missing Link of PowerIn examining US democracy initiatives abroad, Thomas Carothers of the Carnegie Endowment forInternational Peace emphasizes what he calls “the missing link of power” as one key factor underminingchange efforts. Giving short shrift to structures of power and interests, he points out, has led to programfailures in many cases, from efforts of judicial reform to campaigns for legislative change.“... aid providers responding to the lack of formal justice in a country assess the judicial system, forexample, and conclude that it falls short because cases move too slowly, judges are poorly trained andlack up-to-date legal materials, the infrastructure is woefully inadequate, and so on. The aid providersthen prescribe remedies on this basis: reform of court administration, training and legal materials forjudges, equipment for courtrooms, and the like. What they tend not to ask is why the judiciary is in alamentable state, whose interests its weakness serves, and whose interests would be threatened orbolstered by reforms. The assistance may temporarily alleviate some of the symptoms, but theunderlying systemic pathologies remain.”To address this problem, Carothers poses one of the major challenges we attempt to address in thisGuide -- how to incorporate an analysis of interests and power relationships into our strategies.Some democracy promoters cling to what one critic calls the “Walt Disney view of democratization” inwhich the endings are always happy and not one ever gets hurt. They have trouble moving toward agrittier world view, one that does not assume entrenched concentration of political power will meltaway...”“... many projects reflect little hard thinking on these points, and rely on simplistic ideas aboutinstitutional modeling -- teaching judges and politicians that corruption is bad will substantially cut bribetaking, teaching citizens about the importance of voting will overcome their political apathy, and on andon.”“As democracy aid providers pay more heed to the interests and power relationships ... they should notexpect to find cut-and-dried answers ... Factoring in the relevant interests and power relationshipsrequires, above all, close, thoughtful analysis of the local scene ... A focus on interests and powerinevitably pushes aid providers to think more about process than endpoint, about how to stimulate andhelp along processes of sociopolitical change rather than merely to reproduce [institutional] forms ...Truly grappling with the local context shows providers that aid efforts are likely to be much slower,difficult, and risky.”Thomas Carothers, Aiding Democracy Abroad: The Learning Curve. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for InternationalPeace, 1999.Looking at PowerGetting to understand power may begin as apersonal process where the simple act oftalking about it openly can help people grapplewith the controversy and discomfort surround-ing the topic. The following two exercises helpto initiate reflection about power by focusing onpersonal assumptions and encounters withpower. They encourage people to identify theirown sources of power as a way to challengenarrow views of power and