Major classes of power exemplified in modern states as witnessed by Max Weber (1864-1920) include; traditional, rational and charismatic. The traditional power follows the customs that have endured over many years, for instance, the king or queen passing on as a consequence of their dynasty. Charismatic authority draws on the powerful personal charisma or extraordinary charismatic personal attributes of a political leader, exemplified by the examples like Hitler. Legal-rational authority, which is inherited from modern bureaucracy, is now based on the person and not on the qualifications. It is given to an individual by a process that decides who is suitable for the position, such as the merit-based selection or the promotion of a person by a higher authority, instead of the personality of the officeholder. The reason for this kind of authority is essential of the state of the art.

FORMS OF POWER

There are three major forms of Power:

  • "Political Power
  • Economic Power
  • Ideological Power"

Political Power

In view of Alan Ball,"the concept of political power. . . is a key concept in the study of politics for if politics is the resolution of conflict, the distribution of power within a political community determines how the conflict is to be resolved, and whether the resolution is to be effectively observed by all parties."1The legislative, executive and judicial branches that are formally established in state represent its organs of power that divide such a state according to the traditional view. Submission to the decisions of this twofold institutions inherent in the power to impose sanctions among the key elements of political power. Executives and legislators develop laws, regulations, and choose the values which shape to social culture. They use taxes and have established complicated systems for tax collection, issue licenses and permits, and oversee a number of citizen's daily requirement areas like vehicle permit and firearm ownership, business operations, product quality, labor conditions, and infrastructure development. There are spectrum of activities that the police carry out such as apprehending offenders, the courts try disputes and punishment in prisons is, obviously, the last resort. The military is the backbone of defense which centers on repulsing foreign attacks. Altogether formal organs of power politics are vital to the task of maintaining and preserving the state's territory.

Besides the political power given in formal documents, we also can analyze informal power in three aspects. On the other hand, democratic governance is characterized by public attitude, huge protests or movements and organized interests which directly influence the decision-making processes. The ruling parties are required periodically to seek reelection thus creating a remove and replace the administrators in power. There are two points I would like to mention regarding power and dictatorship, revolutions and stronger popular movements as such they inherit fundamental rights or freedom. Next, the international community compiles the final list and comes up with the value to be associated with a particular object by a group of nations. Such nations may only seek to exert influence over policies of the world's wealthiest nations, which involves their economic policies and international policies.

Economic Power

Political dominance springs from owning the productive means, not necessarily the raw materials themselves, but especially capital equipment, transport networks and communications, and this influence extends to governance. Let us discuss, for example, how certain corporations own major newspapers and as a result, use them for promotion of their own interests through the means of major newspapers. Furthermore, giant companies sponsor major political parties and individuals who are preparing for an election, sometimes finely concealed. Such donors frequently try to identify with the masses by claiming that they wanted to raise the level of living in the country whereas, in reality, they wish to protect the interests of their sponsors.

Ideological Power

Ideology may be characterized as"a systematic set of arguments and beliefs used to justify an existing or desired social order."2 The crucial part of political ideology is that it is utilized for delegitimizing the rulers and the process which they made them so. People speaking from the background the idea that some particular form of government is a best type, they lose their capability to perceive the abusing of authorities by ruling classes. After individuals unmistakably imbibe these beliefs, their compliance or resistance would be elatively less or at worst impacted.

Ideology is mostly irrational and unreasonable, disregarding consequentiality. It desecrates actual absolute truth by affirming personal convenience slogan as a "the only truth" thing fellas want to persuade them. It follows that within a particular group, there is a sense of esteem whereas, others are either flatly refused or can even be disliked. The idea is the one who creates the false impression that people agree. Under it, masses can very well express their support for oppressive leaders/policies, thinking that they are representing the interest of the masses, then in the real sense, they just being ruled as per the ideas of ruling classes.

CONCLUSION

Putting it in a nutshell, what characterizes political relations is power and power relations, whereas politics is about power. The world of international relations reveals that national interests can be in this way achieved through the use of power by every nation. Thus, every state seeks how to get and maintain power and to do the things it wants to do. Power can function both as an end and a means in international politics, determining the position of the state among other states. These states are not simply powerful but can also be used by a state to achieve advantage in other areas of international politics. The power approach stands strong among the others as this approach indicates the real power that is behind politics and can be applied both to the national and international politics. On the contrary, this technique is subject to several other weaknesses related to accuracy. As Vernon Van Dyke has elucidated,"Power is said to derive from sources ranging from tacitly accepted rules of politeness to the possession of spaceships; and it is said to manifest itself in situations ranging from a request that the salt be passed at the dining table to a situation in which states are exchanging all-out thermonuclear blows."3 Such imprecision in the concept of power itself challenges any classification or evaluation of information for political analysis.

Secondly, this methodology seeks to diminish all politics to a struggle for power and overlooks other significant purposes for which men have recourse to politics. As Dyke has further elucidated,"Political actors rarely, if ever, struggle for power alone. They pursue other purposes, too. The theory that politics is a struggle for power does not say how much power is desired or what price political actors are willing to pay for it in terms of other values. The thoughtless assumption that all political actors constantly seek a maximization of power at any price is obviously false."4

Concerning uniqueness of different social contexts and their power struggles, it would not be appropriate to classify all such struggles as being political per se. Take, for example, the situation where actors fight for celeb status and manufacturers battle for market share. Virtually those two constitute political power struggles, but they are not mentioned as so in the context. Politics in a more specific sense means the competition of the haves for power, with the maneuvering to have that power applied in the immediate determination of the distribution of public goods, opportunities, services and honors. Regardless of how we twist this idea there will be no power approach obtained if it is based on something else.

Footnotes

1 Modern Politics and Government; 1988

2 Joseph Dunner, ed., Dictionary of Political Science; 1965

3 Political Science—A Philosophical Analysis; 1960

4 Ibid.

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