French and Bertram Raven developed a schema of sources of power by which to analyse how power plays work (or fail to work) in a specific relationship.Īccording to French and Raven, power must be distinguished from influence in the following way: power is that state of affairs which holds in a given relationship, A-B, such that a given influence attempt by A over B makes A's desired change in B more likely.

In a now-classic study (1959), social psychologists John R. Main article: French and Raven's five bases of power Scholars have distinguished between soft power and hard power. Power can be seen as evil or unjust however, power can also be seen as good and as something inherited or given for exercising humanistic objectives that will help, move, and empower others as well. The term authority is often used for power that is perceived as legitimate or socially approved by the social structure. Power may also take structural forms, as it orders actors in relation to one another (such as distinguishing between a master and an enslaved person, a householder and their relatives, an employer and their employees, a parent and a child, a political representative and their voters.), and discursive forms, as categories and language may lend legitimacy to some behaviors and groups over others.

Power does not exclusively refer to the threat or use of force ( coercion) by one actor against another, but may also be exerted through diffuse means (such as institutions). In social science and politics, power is the social production of an effect that determines the capacities, actions, beliefs, or conduct of actors.

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