Power and Politics

Power and Politics Unit P1: Basic Concepts

Unit M1: Basic Concepts

Power and Politics

Basic Concepts

Introduction
We need to begin by noting and understanding the definitions of - and interrelationship between - the following concepts: a. Power b. Politics c. Authority d. Ideology

The concepts of power and politics are entwined / inter-dependent in the sense that politics - whether of the specifically governmental kind (political parties, pressure groups, etc.), the economic kind (bureaucracies, the organization of the workplace into social hierarchies based upon status, etc.) or the interpersonal (relations between males and females, children and adults, etc) - involves the exercising of power. What we have to begin by doing, therefore, is to define the concept of power (and understand the differing dimensions / aspects of power - coercive power, types of authority and so forth) and relate it to such ideas as: a. The social characteristics of the powerful and the powerless. b. The development of ideological frameworks that legitimise the exercise of power. c. The social effects / consequences of the exercising of power. Explicitly, in relation to politics and power there are two basic kinds of sociological question that we need to explore: a. Who rules in society? b. How is their power created, legitimised and reproduced? In social terms, power, almost by definition, involves the rule by the few over the majority and we have to understand the political processes (both Structural and Interpersonal) whereby power is legitimated (the process whereby power ceases to be nakedly coercive and becomes power that is based upon authority. Question: How would you define the concept of power? (Try to think of an example of a relationship based upon power (for example, making your little brother / sister into your personal slave) and "work