What Is Civic Power?

In the video Eric Liu spoke of the systems of power that society has structured. Eric defines power as the ability to make others do what you would have them do. He sees power as being found with family, at your workplace, and in relationships. He defines the six main sources of civic power as being Control of physical force, wealth to buy results and other power, State action (government) to have control over people and what they do. An example for this would be that in a democracy the citizens give government power through elections, and in contrast dictatorship expresses power through force. The fourth civic power is known as social norm, which means what others believe that is okay, and what is not okay. The fifth civic power is ideas meaning

In the video Eric breaks it down for viewers for us to see how power is perceived and structured. At the beginning of the film Liu illustrates how power resides in the people. He goes on to say that those who really have power then turn evil because people may perceive it distinctively. Democracies and dictatorships show the contrast in how power is perceived and understood contrarily based on how it is defined in their civic life. His definition of power is essential in this video because it identifies the importance that it has on people and their abilities compared to others. I identified our class concept during this part of the video because people may have different perceptions of power and interpret it in a different manner. When organizing what we perceive we think about the stereotypes that are given to those with power, and those without it. We make generalizations upon these stereotypes. We also create personal constructs upon people we encounter who have more power because of the judgments that are constructed. Interacting distinctively with those of lesser, or higher power, is a norm for people who interpret the definition of