POLI 105 1st Edition Lecture 3 Power Ability to effect outcomes Can be both potential and kinetic physics o Could exist as the ability to deliver an event or in the delivery of an event True question is whether power really is zero sum Power varies within a society and is not equally divided but subject to the types of resources and abilities that the actor possesses Luke and the 3 Dimensions of Power 1 First Dimension a Involves a focus on behavior in the making of decisions on issues over which there is observable conflict of subjective interest seen as express policy preferences revealed by political participation b Common way most people view power 2 Second Dimension a Mobilization of bias b Power to set agendas c Power of exclusion 3 Third Dimension a Power of ideas and behavior itself b Norms and values c The capacity of actor A to shape what Actor B actually thinks about To get B to do what B does not want to do but also to influence shape or determine what B wants Mancur Olson The Problem of the Collective Action Problem Olson tackles the problem of why small groups are often able to accomplish goals that big groups can t or why it often seems even in democracy that special interests overcome larger interests Mann IEMP Mann takes a rather state centric position on sources of social power These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute Differentiated set of institutions and personnel Centrality of the state in political relations that radiate outwards from a center Territorially demarcated area Monopoly of authoritative binding rule making backed up by a monopoly of the means of physical violence Four Logistics of Power o I Ideological Search for meaning primarily an existential meaning drawn from our perception Development of norms of social behavior Development of aesthetic ritual practices within a society that structure and stabilize these norms o E Economic Derives at first from the satisfaction of subsistence needs through the social organization of extraction transformation distribution and consumption of the objects of nature Ruling class is an economic class that has successfully monopolized the power sources to dominate a state centered society at large o M Military Has intensive and extensive aspects concentrated coercive power mobilizes violence and is the bluntest form of human power Needs to be distinguished from political power b c Early political orgs often had too little or no military capability Many political orgs do not necessarily control their militaries or do not have total control over the military forces operating within the territory There are historical instances where military conquest was not driven by states in which they reside but were initiated by the military itself Military institutions can be separated from other state institutions in part b c of the relative ease by which militaries can overthrow political leadership o P Political Usefulness of centralized institutionalized territorialized regulation of many aspects of social relations It is also power over diplomacy True political power comes from its capacity to law down rules and adjudicate disputes in specific territories