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Distinguish between power and authority
Nature of authority power
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“People of Earth, please lend me your energy!” Goku shouted while preparing his Spirit Bomb. By harnessing the power of all mankind, Goku successfully created his spirit bomb and defeated the evil Kid Buu—thus saving the Earth. And while this story comes from the fictional world of Dragon Ball Z, it helps in answering the question of “what exactly is power” and “what does it mean to be powerful”. It helps in that it displays how cheering can increase someone’s abilities, the same occurrence that happens with athletes and actors. While this may only be one view of power, all views of power are important. Power’s importance can be summed up as being something that every human inherently desires. Whether that power may be the ability to survive, the ability to live life as one pleases, or the ability to be above all others, every person wants power.
Power is something seen throughout all aspects of life. Every culture, every religion, every area, has an idea of what power is. Tibetan monks may believe that power relates to inner spirituality and oneness with your environment while warring tribes in Africa may argue that power is in whoever is physically strong. The broadness of power allows it to be interpreted as the viewer sees fit.
Power’s malleability has been the subject of past research. Two social psychologists, John R. P. French and Bertram Raven researched different types of powers and classified them. They simplified power down to six fundamental types: coercive power, reward power, legitimate power, referent power, expert power, and informational power. Coercive power is the ability to get someone to do something against their will. Coercion is often done through violence but it can also be done with threats, blackmail, ...
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...nal power is not an absolute. An unruly mob is nothing to a god who has legitimate power. That same king who seems powerful to the mob is nothing in the eyes of a god whose omnipotence prevails over the trivial matters of a king. And even a god will have no power if their target does not believe in their existence.
Power is a very strong tool that can either be used for the better of mankind or the destruction of it. Theodore Roosevelt stated “speak softly and carry a big stick”, claiming that power of negotiation needs to be backed up with actually military strength. Power is something that is endearing and ambiguous. One’s perceived view of power may be entirely different from another’s but that does not mean that either is wrong. The time, the place, and the situation will all affect the effectiveness of a power. Power is whatever you perceive it to be and more.
What is power to a human? As time has gone by, there have been many forms of control and influence in the world. Many strive to achieve total rule over a society or group of individuals. Yet the question still presents itself to the average man. Why does man desire power so greatly even though there is visible trouble that follows? Shelley’s Frankenstein, Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, whether through the situation or the character themselves, depict the evils and hardships due to an imbalance and poor management of power.
power in order for it to be seen in a simpler light and to emphasize the egalitarian nature of
Power. It is defined as the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events. Throughout time, certain individuals have acquired power in their society as a way to govern and keep order among their community. Power is not a new concept; it was used in the past by many emperors, kings, and queens, and is still being used by presidents, prime ministers, and dictators. Although, it has been used to further progress societies into what the world is like today, not all power has been used for the best of mankind. But what goes awry to make power turn corrupt? In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, it is illustrated how power can turn corrupt, when authoritative figures, who possess power, abuse it for their personal gain, rather than for the common good of the society.
Power has been defined as the psychological relations over another to get them to do what you want them to do. We are exposed to forms of power from the time of birth. Our parents exercise power over us to behave in a way they deem appropriate. In school, teachers use their power to help us learn. When we enter the work world the power of our boss motivates us to perform and desire to move up the corporate ladder so that we too can intimidate someone with power one day. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Kurtz had a power over the jungle and its people that was inexplicable.
Power allows people to do anything they want. They can use it in different ways, they can tell people to obey them, they can use it to hurt someone they hate, and even rob. They can also use it in a positive way, they can help people and do a lot of good things with it.
Pierre Bourdieu was a highly influential theorist. He provides a unique and fascinating definition or understanding of power as well as an explanation and analysis into how power works. This work serves to outline what is this specific concept of power means and contains, how it is created, what are the various forms it takes on and in general, how power works. Power is a difficult concept to define conclusively or definitively however, Bourdieu explains power to be a symbolic construct that is perpetuated through every day actions and behaviours of a society, that manipulate power relations to create, maintain and force the conforming of peoples to the given habitus of that society (Bourdieu, 1977). Power, is a force created through the social conventions of a specific community that dictate what is expected or accepted by the people while also determining how they understand the world in which they live (Bourdieu, 1977).
In World War II, a lot of people are slaughtered by a man who has absolute power. This man was Adolf Hitler and he murdered 6 million Jewish. A lot of people see him as a powerful dictator, because of his mass murder. People often see often as the ability the to get what someone wants at first thought. However, it has wider concept, it has a more complex structure. It could be used for a lot of purposes and has a lot of type. If some leaders or some institutions have absolute power, ultimately the power they have will corrupt the order expects some kind of power such as knowledge, love, etc.
Some theorists believe that ‘power is everywhere: not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere… power is not an institution, nor a structure, nor possession. It is the name we give to a complex strategic situation in a particular society. (Foucault, 1990: 93) This is because power is present in each individual and in every relationship. It is defined as the ability of a group to get another group to take some form of desired action, usually by consensual power and sometimes by force. (Holmes, Hughes &Julian, 2007) There have been a number of differing views on ‘power over’ the many years in which it has been studied. Theorist such as Anthony Gidden in his works on structuration theory attempts to integrate basic structural analyses and agency-centred traditions. According to this, people are free to act, but they must also use and replicate fundamental structures of power by and through their own actions. Power is wielded and maintained by how one ‘makes a difference’ and based on their decisions and actions, if one fails to exercise power, that is to ‘make a difference’ then power is lost. (Giddens: 1984: 14) However, more recent theorists have revisited older conceptions including the power one has over another and within the decision-making processes, and power, as the ability to set specific, wanted agendas. To put it simply, power is the ability to get others to do something they wouldn’t otherwise do. In the political arena, therefore, power is the ability to make or influence decisions that other people are bound by.
by Robert Dahl it is claimed that “A has power over B if A gets B to do something B would not do otherwise,” (Smith “Power.”). In this case there is no other option for B, and B obeys A due to the social construction of power which states A is superior to B. Often times this is forced upon B through coercion,
Power is authority and strength, which is any form of motive force or energy, ability to act, or control. When too much power is given, a dictatorship government can form, in which all decisions are made by one authority. In the book Animal Farm, by George Orwell the author portrays how “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton).
Mooijman et al.’s (2015) results were supportive of their hypothesis that power has an association with one’s reliance on deterrence. However, Mooijman et al. (2015) had not established causality in whether power has an effect on one’s trust. To establish causality, Mooijman et al. (2015) conducted the remainder of their research specifically with experimental observations. The remainder of Mooijman et al.’s (2015) observations found consistently that power erodes trust. This lack of trust then increases one’s reliance on deterrence as a punishment motive. The results of Mooijman et al.’s (2015) conclude that across the series of studies conducted, there was the consistent observation wherein power underscores trust. However, it cannot be asserted that there is a causal relation that power has an increase on one’s reliance on deterrence as a punishment motive. The researchers in this study were predicting that power has increases one’s reliance on deterrence as a punishment method. It is that prediction, and lack of establishing causality that renders this research correlational in
The term power has a variety of definitions. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the first definition of power refers to “the ability or capacity to act or do something effectively”, also include “a capacity, faculty, or aptitude,” (“power. (n.d.)
The formal definition of power is the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the courses of events. So what are the elements that constitute real power? Many believe true power revolves around force, deception, manipulation, and coercion, but others believe this is not the correct way to maintain power. The real way to obtain real power and have a true influence in others requires empathy, generosity, and social intelligence.
POWER: AN ESSAY ON POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY INTRODUCTION The word "power" itself implies the "powerful". Power is usually used word in everyday context, but to understand it in political philosophy I would like to explain "what power is not?" Can't we say that power is seen even in a beggar whom we consider, the powerless, ignored by the society, or can we say that a physically paralyzed man have no power in him? So the task for me is to explain "what power is not", then only I can explore the term power in political philosophy.
Power is only truly given by the people. It’s the people that will elect the president of the United States, thus he has power. It’s the people who elect group leaders, team leaders, and other political positions. Without the people power wouldn’t play such a prominent role in the world, but the people have been mistreated by the powerful because for many years the idea of what it means to remain powerful is that they have to be all about themselves and be demanding. The definition of the acquisition of power is a very controversial definition, because many people have conflicting ideas on what it means.