POWER:

PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE

GROUP II
• The ability to influence or outright control the
behaviour of people.

• Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the

exercise of power is accepted as endemic to
humans as social beings.

• Power as a means to make social actions possible

as much as it may contain or prevent them.
• POWER OVER
― The ability to dominate another person or a group.
―Usually comes from force and threat.

• POWER TO
―The ability to do something on one’s own (sources:
intellect, resources, knowledge, stamina and etc.)
• POWER WITH
― is similar also to “power to” in that it reflects ability
―The ability to work with others to get something done
by cooperation.
• Steven Lukes defines the concept of power by
saying that “A exercise power over B when A
affects B in a manner contrary to B’s Interests.”

• He describes power as having three dimensions

and has divided power into three distinct ‘
faces’, each focusing on a specific aspect of
power.
• ‘open face of power’
• The ability to control or influence in an open and
direct way.
• In the classical idea of political power, meaning
the government has the power to make
decisions on behalf of the people.
• “power is exercised behind closed doors”

• This is because you can decide or limit what will be

discussed and more importantly what cannot be
discussed, effectively controlling the situation.

• Power is not just about decision making, it is about

preventing decisions being made or reducing the
choices which can be made.
• Power to shape desires

• It seeks to identify “ the means though which power

influences, shapes and determines conceptions of
necessities, possibilities and strategies of challenge in
situation of conflict.”
Power has been an important aspect of
human civilization since time immemorial.

Power might be physical, political or

social. In the context of business as well,
power dynamics tend to influence
decisions and people transactions heavily.
• Involves the usage of threat to make people do
what one desires. In the organizational set up, it
translates into threatening someone to transfer,
firing, demotions etc. it basically forces people
to submit to one’s demand for the fear of losing
something.
• Uses rewards, perks, new projects or training opportunities,
better roles and monetary benefits to influence people.

• However an interesting aspect of this type of power is that, it

is not powerful enough in itself, as decisions related to
rewards do not rest solely with the person promising them,
because in organizations, a lot of other people come into
play like senior managers and board.
• This power emanates from an official position held by
someone, be it an organization, bureaucracy or
government and etc. The duration of this power is short
lived as a person can use it only till the time he/she holds
the position, as well as, the scope of the power is small
as it is strictly defined by the position held.
• This is a personal kind of power which owes its
genesis to the skills and expertise possessed by
an individual, which is higher quality and not
easily available.
• Wielded by celebrities and film stars as they
have huge following amongst masses who like
them, identify with them and follow them.
hence they exert lasting influence on a large
number of people for a large number of
decisions; like what car to buy to which
candidate to choose for a higher office in the
country.