Political Power: Influence, Authority, and Legitimacy
Power, Influence, Authority
Political power comprises three key elements: power, influence, and authority.
The Components of Political Power
Exercises of Political Power
Fear: Force threatens the actions or inactions of other actors.
Persuasion: Influence through conviction.
Authority: Trusted reputation.
- Force or coercion involves limiting others’ access to goods or opportunities (life, liberty, property, etc.).
- Duress is exercised through financial control to affect others’ freedom of action.
- Influence relies on persuading others to adopt or abandon behaviors.
- Influence is developed through propaganda, spreading ideas and proposals to lobby groups based on conviction and emotion. Organization relies on the voluntary cooperation of a group working toward common objectives.
- Political power also manifests as authority.
- Authority is recognized through general moral prestige, scientific competence, or experience. Advice or suggestions are followed without scrutinizing the arguments.
Manifestations of Political Power
- At one level, power is openly exercised when actors strive to influence others using all available means.
- At a second level, power operates less visibly. Actions prevent conflicts from being “politicized”—included in issues requiring community-wide decisions.
- A third level (Lukes) involves covert political activity where inequality is not perceived as problematic. Power is exercised at the first level by prompting collective decisions. At the second level, power prevents issues from becoming subject to political decisions. The third level seeks to make the very existence of the problem socially invisible.
- Political power is exercised when socially acceptable situations mask inequalities between groups (gender, class, ethnicity, religion).
Classifying Political Power
- First Level: All actors participate in a political conflict over issue X, perceived as problematic.
- Second Level: Actors prevent issue X from becoming a conflict by controlling institutional agencies, preventing binding regulations.
- Third Level: Actors influence others’ consciousness—through myths and ideologies—so issue X is not perceived as problematic.
The Other Side of Power: Legitimacy
Sources of Legitimacy
- Legitimacy links to ideas and values, forming the basis for political systems and proposals.
- Tradition: Power is justified by its alignment with past customs.
- Rationale: An order or demand is justified by the fit between its purposes and means.
- Charisma: Legitimacy can derive from the exceptional qualities of a person.
Charisma and Political Change
- Charismatic leadership’s ability to drive change can be confusing.
- Performance: Power’s legitimacy can be based on the outcomes of its actions.
- Power seeks legitimacy from all possible sources.
Legitimacy, Legality, and Constitution
- Rational legitimacy arises from stable, formalized rules.
- Laws and constitutions embody these rules.
- Legality refers to a decision’s alignment with the law; legitimacy reflects its alignment with broader social values, including the constitution.
- The maximum alignment between legitimacy and legality ensures stable and acceptable political power.