Powers - Philippines Politics and Governance .pptx

Social Studies

1. Power: Nature, Dimensions, Types and Consequences Paulyn P. Bajos Subject Teacher   Philippine Politics and Governance Week 3

2. Power is frequently defined by political scientists as the ability to influence the behavior of others with or without resistance. In our everyday dealings, people use power tactics to influence others such as collaboration, criticizing, demanding, inspiring, manipulating, negotiating, and socializing.

3. Meaning of Power

4. Pittacus (c. 640–568 B.C.E.) cited, “The measure of a man is what he does with power,” and Lord Acton perhaps more famously asserted, “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely” (1887). Indeed, the concept of power can have decidedly negative connotations, and the term itself is difficult to define.

5. According to Kingsley Davis, “Power as the determination of the behavior of others following one’s own ends.

6. According to Weber, “Power as the probability that one actor (individual or group) within a social relationship in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability rests”.

7. According to Green, “Power is simply the extent of the capability to control others so that they will do what they are wanted to do.”

8. Power may derive from a number of sources, including social class (material wealth can equal power), resource currency (material items such as money, property, food), personal or group charisma, or social influence of tradition (compare ascribed power).

9. According to Lundberg and others, “By power, we mean the extent to which persons or groups can limit or regulate the alternative courses of action open to other persons or groups with or without their consent.”

10. Faces of Power

11. 1. The ‘first face’ of power: decision making The first face of power is the most easily recognizable: decision-making is the process whereby an actor, such as an individual or a political organization, considers their situation and acts upon a course they have determined. Decision-making might then take into account both coercive and non-coercive action.

12. The ‘second face’ of power: agenda setting The second face of power as cited by Heywood (2007) is the ability to prevent decisions being made: that is, in effect, “non-decision-making”. Thus, it involves the ability to set or control the political agenda, thereby preventing issues or proposals from being aired in the first place.

13. 3. The ‘third face’ of power: thought control According to Heywood (2007) is the ability to influence another by shaping what he or she thinks, wants, or needs. For simplicity and understanding purposes power is usually classified into following categories:

14. 3.1 Coercive Power-  This kind of power involves the usage of threat to make people do what one desires. In the organizational set up, it translates into threatening someone with transfer, firing, demotions etc. it basically forces people to submit to one’s demand for the fear of losing something.

15. 3.2 Reward Power-  This type of power 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.

16. 3.3 Legitimate Power-  This power emanates from an official position held by someone, be it in an organization, bureaucracy or government, etc. The duration of this power is short-lived as a person can use it only till the time he/she holds that position, as well as, the scope of the power is small as it is strictly defined by the position held.

17. 3.4 Expert Power-  This is a personal kind of power that owes its genesis to the skills and expertise possessed by an individual, which is of higher quality and not easily available. In such a situation, the person can exercise the power of knowledge to influence people. Since it is very person-specific and skills can be enhanced with time; it has more credibility and respect.

18. 3.5 Referent Power-  This is a power wielded by celebrities and film stars as they have a huge following among the 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 from what car to buy to which candidate to choose for a higher office in the country.

19. Thank You! Reference: PPG LAS 3 Wk. 3, Division of Negros Occidental