Political power (imperium in Latin) is a type of power held by a person or group in a society. Imperium in a broad sense translates as power. In Ancient Rome the concept applied to People, and meant something like "power Power is a measure of a person's ability to control the environment around them including the behavior of other people A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions There are many ways to hold such power. Officially, political power is held by the holders of sovereignty. Sovereignty is the exclusive Right to control a Government, a country, a people or oneself Political powers are not limited to heads of states, however, and the extent to which a person or group holds such power is related to the amount of societal influence they can wield, formally or informally. Power is a measure of a person's ability to control the environment around them including the behavior of other people In many cases this influence is not contained within a single state and it refers to international power. Power in international relations is defined in several different ways
Political scientists have frequently defined power as "the ability to influence the behaviour of others" with or without resistance.
For analytical reasons, I. C. MacMillan[1] separates the concepts power
Power is the capacity to restructure actual situations.
—I. C. Macmillan
and influence
Influence is the capacity to control and modify the perceptions of others.
—I. C. Macmillan
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Separation of powers
Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu claimed that without following a principle of containing and balancing legislative, executive and judiciary powers, there is no freedom and no protection against abuse of power. Charles-Louis de Secondat baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (Eng A legislature is a type of representative Deliberative assembly with the power to create amend and change Laws The law created by a legislature is called Legislation In Political science and Constitutional law, the executive is the branch of government responsible for the day-to-day management of the State. In Law, the judiciary or judicial system is the system of Courts which administer Justice in the name of the sovereign or State Separation of power must be in such grade, that any of the branches can operate without excessive limitations from the others; but interdependecy between them must also be in such grade, that one single branch cannot rule out the other's decisions. This is the separation of powers principle. Separation of powers, a term ascribed to French Enlightenment Political philosopher Baron de Montesquieu, is a model for the Governance
Division of Power
A similar concept, termed Division of Power, also consists of differentiated legislative, executive, and judicial powers. However, while Separation of Power prohibits one branch from interfering with another, Division of Power permits such interference. For example, in Indonesia, the President (who wields executive power) can introduce a new bill, but the People's Consultative Assembly (holding legislative power) chooses to either legalize or reject the bill. The Republic of Indonesia ( (Republik Indonesia is a Country in Southeast Asia. The People's Consultative Assembly ( Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat /MPR is the legislative branch in Indonesia's political sytem.
Power projection
Power projection (or force projection) is a term used in military and political science to refer to the capacity of a state to implement policy by means of force, or the threat thereof, in an area distant from its own territory. Military Science is the process of translating National defence policy to produce Military capability by employing Military scientists including Political science is a branch of Social sciences that deals with the theory and practice of Politics and the description and analysis of Political systems A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. The United States Department of Defense, in its publication J1-02: Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, further defines power projection as
The ability of a nation to apply all or some of its elements of national power - political, economic, informational, or military - to rapidly and effectively deploy and sustain forces in and from multiple dispersed locations to respond to crises, to contribute to deterrence, and to enhance regional stability. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The United States Department of Defense ( DOD or DoD) is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government [1]
This ability is a crucial element of a state's power in international relations. Power in international relations is defined in several different ways Any state able to direct its military forces outside the limited bounds of its territory might be said to have some level of power projection capability, but the term itself is used most frequently in reference to militaries with a worldwide reach (or at least significantly broader than a state's immediate area). Even states with sizable hard power assets (such as a large standing army) may only be able to exert limited regional influence so long as they lack the means of effectively projecting their power on a global scale. Hard power is a term describing power obtained from the utilisation of military and/or economic power to influence the behaviour or interests of other political bodies A standing army is an Army composed of full time career Soldiers who 'stand over' in other words who do not disband during times of peace In International relations, a regional power is a State that has power within a geographic Region. Generally, only a select few states are able to overcome the logistical difficulties inherent in the deployment and direction of a modern, mechanized military force. Military Logistics is the art and science of planning and carrying out the movement and maintenance of military forces Military deployment is the movement of armed forces and their logistical support infrastructure
While traditional measures of power projection typically focus on hard power assets (tanks, soldiers, aircraft, naval vessels, etc. Hard power is a term describing power obtained from the utilisation of military and/or economic power to influence the behaviour or interests of other political bodies ), the developing theory of soft power notes that power projection does not necessarily have to involve the active use of military forces in combat. Soft power is a term used in International relations theory to describe the ability of a Political body such as a State, to indirectly influence the behavior The ComBat was an Aluminium Cricket bat and the subject of an incident that occurred at the WACA cricket ground in Perth in December 1979. Assets for power projection can often serve dual uses, as the deployment of various countries' militaries during the humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake illustrates. The humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was prompted by one of the worst Natural disasters of modern times The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's Oceanic divisions covering about 20% of the water on the Earth 's surface The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea Earthquake that occurred at 005853 UTC on December 26 2004 with an Epicentre off the west coast of The ability of a state to project its forces into an area may serve as an effective diplomatic lever, influencing the decision-making process and acting as a potential deterrent on other states' behavior.
Political Science Perspectives
Within normative political analysis, there are also various levels of power as described by academics that add depth into the understanding of the notion of power and its political implications. Robert Dahl, a prominent American political scientist, first ascribed to political power the trait of decision-making as the source and main indicator of power. Robert Alan Dahl (born 17 December 1915) is the Sterling Professor emeritus of Political science at Yale University. Later, two other political scientists, Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz, decided that simply ascribing decision-making as the basis of power was too simplistic and they added what they termed a 2nd dimension of power, agenda-setting by elites who worked in the backrooms and away from public scrutiny in order to exert their power upon society. Lastly, British academic Steven Lukes added a 3rd dimension of power, preference-shaping, which he claimed was another important aspect of normative power in politics which entails theoretical views similar to notions of cultural hegemony. Professor Steven Michael Lukes, DPhil (born 1941 is the author of numerous books and articles about political and social theory Cultural hegemony is a Concept coined by Marxist Philosopher Antonio Gramsci. These 3 dimensions of power are today often considered defining aspects of political power by political researchers.
A radical alternative view of the source of political power follows the formula: information plus authority permits the exercise of power. Political power is intimately related to information. Sir Francis Bacon's statement: "Nam et ipsa scientia potentia est" for knowledge itself is power, assumed authority as given. The famous phrase scientia potentia est is a Latin maxim "For also knowledge itself is power" stated originally by Sir Francis Bacon in Meditationes Many will know that unless someone with authority heeds, there is no political power. The kingmaker is not the king. " Kingmaker " is a term originally applied to the activities of Richard Neville 16th Earl of Warwick during the Wars of the Roses in England.
It is said democracy is the best method of informing those entrusted with authority. They are best able to use authority without ignorance to maximize political power. Those who exercise authority in ignorance are not powerful, because they do not realize their intentions and have little control over the effects of using their authority.
Post-modernism has debated over how to define political power. Postmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement' While " Modern " itself refers to something "related to the present" the movement of modernism Perhaps, the best known definition comes from the late Michel Foucault, whose work in Discipline and Punish (and other writings) conveys a view of power that is organic within society. Michel Foucault ( (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984 was a French philosopher, Historian, Intellectual, Critic and Sociologist. Discipline and Punish The Birth of the Prison is a book written by the philosopher Michel Foucault. This view holds that political power is more subtle and is part of a series of societal controls and 'normalizing' influences through historical institutions and definitions of normal vs. abnormal. Foucault once characterized power as "an action over actions" (une action sur des actions), arguing that power was essentially a relation between several dots, in continuous transformation as in Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist His view of power lent credence to the view that power in human society was part of a training process in which everyone, from a prime minister to a homeless person, played their role within the power structure of society. This article is about the government position For other uses see Prime Minister (disambiguation. Jürgen Habermas opposed himself to Foucault's conception of discourse as a battlefield for power relations, arguing that it should be possible to achieve consensus on the fundamentals rules of discourse, in order to establish a transparent and democratic dialogue. Jürgen Habermas (ˈjʏʁgən ˈhaːbɐmaːs born June 18, 1929 is a German Philosopher and Sociologist in the tradition of Discourse (L discursus, "running to and from" means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion Consensus has two common meanings One is a general agreement among the members of a given group or Community, each of which exercises some discretion in A dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog) is a reciprocal Conversation between two or more entities. Thenceforth, he argued against Foucault and Louis Althusser that power was not immanent to discourse, and that philosophy could be completely distinguished from ideology. Louis Pierre Althusser (Pronunciation altuˡseʁ ( October 16, 1918 – October 22, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. An ideology is a set of beliefs aims and Ideas especially in politics
References
- ^ I. C. MacMillan (1978) Strategy Formulation: political concepts, St Paul, MN, West Publishing;
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