Social Power

What is the nature of social power?

A dictionary definition of power is the ability to do or act, or the possession of control or command over others. Power is a measure of a person's ability to influence the environment around them, including the behavior of other people. Social power is the ability of an actor to change the incentive structures of other actors in order to bring about outcomes. Thus social power can constrain other people’s action and on the other hand, it can facilitate action in a given context. In social processes were we are involved with other people, our ability to satisfy our desires is determined by our ability to influence people with power or resist their efforts to influence us in ways we do not want. The ability to influence or resist is social power.

There are several forms of power and these include:
1. Economic power - to control production, resources and labor; to buy or control things with money or credit; and to influence consumption, production, prices, wages or other market conditions.
2. Government power - to formulate rules and policies that govern people’s action and behavior.
3. Physical or coercive power - to coerce behavior of others e.g. through use of force or violence. Although coercive power tends to be the most obvious, it is not effective because it causes resentment and resistance within the target audience.
4. Knowledge power - built by being well-informed and up-to-date with information. Possession of knowledge fosters persuasion of others.
5. Personal power - power of an individual in a given position and duties of the holder of the position within an organization. This is the most obvious and also the most important kind of power.

Nature of social power
Social power is transmutable and fluid because it can be changed from one form to another in a given context. For instance, governmental power can be easily changed by war. Other forms of power in local communities such as kinships in Uganda may not be easily changed due to cultural or institutional norms that govern election of kings (a king rules a kingdom for as long as he is alive). However, it also flows across generations. This implies that social power is not static but flows among individuals, generations, and within and across institutions.

Social power can be active or passive. Individuals that recognize the power they have use it to influence others. However, individuals who fail to realize what power they have tend to be passive for example citizens who do not vote.

Social power does not come in separate pieces. Social power is organized into systems or structures of power such as organizations, family, community, religion, interest group, class, movement, political party, etc. All components or individuals within a given social organization influence or are influenced by a given form of power. Consequently, this influences the outcomes of the system.

Social power influences people’s freedom to satisfy their desires and the reverse is true. For example, people with lots of money (such as capitalists) can successfully influence other people (e.g. the workers) who may not have as much money. Marx discusses how capitalists use money to manipulate workers. Marx argues that money can transform an individual and their identity from bad to good. Money turns man’s powers into something which in itself is contrary. Therefore, the more power one has the less freedom the other party has to realize their desires. To be able to resist influence from people with power, it is important that we are conscious and aware of our desires and of possibilities for expressing and fulfilling them. We need the means and opportunities for satisfying our desires and address restrictions, coercion and, other factors that hinder self-determined realization of our desires.

Social power influences realization of democracy. Societies or social organizations were some people have more power as compared to others lack of democracy. This leads to unequal distribution of resources and opportunities thus generating social inequalities. To minimize social inequalities, social power should be equitably distributed among members of social organizations. I use the term equitable because practically it is difficult to realize equal distribution of social power.

In conclusion, social power is of significant importance to communities or social organizations due to the fact that it enhances social change and development. However, this can only be achieved in communities with equitable power distribution. Foucault noted that there is no society without power relations. A society without power relations can only be an abstraction.

References
http://www.co-intelligence.org/CIPol_democSocPwrAnal.html
http://changingminds.org/explanations/power/french_and_raven.htm http://foucault.info/documents/foucault.power.en.html