Domination: A View Of Power

Power relates to the ability of one person to get another person to do something that is against their beliefs. “The more power one person has, the less the other has” (Rowlands, 1997). Domination is a view of power. “Domination consists of living under the arbitrary power of another” (Williams & Macedo, 2005). Domination describes who has power over who in relationships such as class. Domination can take political, economic, social and cultural forms that may interact with each other. Domination consists of conforming to the rules of another for that persons own gain, for example the exploitation of labour. People dominate others simply to glorify their own power status (Williams & Macedo, 2005). This type of power is seen in national and international policy making. It can be shown through violence or other forms of conflict (Rowlands, 1997).

The state is a set of governmental institutions. Government is the process of making rules, controlling, guiding or regulating. In Western societies the government is elected ministers who are in charge of departments. A modern state is a type of government characterised by five characteristics. The state is a separate institution from the rest of society that creates public and private spheres. The state is the supreme power and is the definitive authority for all law. The states control applies to all individuals equally even those in government. The state’s workforce are employed and trained in a bureaucratic method. The state has the capability to extract taxation to finance projects from the population (Dunleavy & O'Leary, 1987).

Society is a social contract that ocucrs between members of the community and friendly associations. They form a semi-closed system were interactions are mos...

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...ism fails to identify the conflicting ideals of equality and efficiency. Problem solving within social partnership cannot replace the political choices made about redistribution (Murphy, 2014). There is concern that politics is becoming irrelevant and that importance of politics is being neglected. Elected representatives are removed by the government and social partners. Ministers are closely linked to social partnership rather than party politicians (O'Donnell, 2000). Irish social participation doesn’t enable participative democracy. Communication is concerned with problem solving not structural change. The whole process of social partnership is secretive and invisible, it is not publicly known (Gaynor, 2009). The social partnership was never meant to be democratic, it was meant to be a wage deal that legitimised an economic model (Murphy, 2014).