Lecture 1
Why power
Who should have (political) power
- who should be in charge
- democracy
- separation of powers
How should power be distributed
- within society
- justice
- equality
What constitutes abuse of power
- when is it harmful
- corruption
- bribery
- coercion
- bias
- concerned when decisions, actions are influenced by power
Care about power in three contexts (Morriss)
- practical
● what can you bring about, what others can do
● capacity and ability
- moral
● relevant for ascribing responsibility
● must have power to be blameworthy
- evaluative
● Forming groups means I gain certain powers, but also become subject to
power of others.
● We can evaluate societies in terms of the power they grant individuals to
control one’s life
So there are a number of dimensions for concern
It is important to identify power. We need to know what it is and who has it.
There is often disagreement about power. There is no one definition but a range that is
philosophically loaded.
,Cases of power
While the majority voted against the Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 (March
2018), the referendum was non-binding and the public has no power to change the law.
The media repeatedly emphasised that the main issues surrounding Brexit were about
sovereignty and immigration.
Richard Thaler: “..but I think most of us would rather..have our kids be well educated...”
One-dimensional
Steven Luke > categorizes a range of power among three dimensions.
Power as prevailing in decision making > when there is conflict and two people want
different things, then power is how you get your way.
“A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that B would not
otherwise do”
Managers can have one-dimensional power > they can fire you if you don’t do what they
want.
Mechanism: coercion
- Authority, personality, control of resources, or uncertainty
- e.g. the threat of being fired
Young: powerlessness as one dimension of oppression
- Non-professionals take orders and rarely give them, unable to decide on conditions
of work, little/no work autonomy, unable to exercise judgment
- there is a hierarchy of professional careers
Problems
- Ignores why some issues relevant, and how people come to have preferences
- it does not explain different levels of power might work
- Subject to Dowding’s ‘blame fallacy’
Blame Fallacy
If power is the capacity to intentionally control events to make something happen,
and you want to measure who has power,
look for who benefits to infer who has power (decision-making procedure not always
transparent)
You need to look for the effects of power to measure where it is.
,Dowding–this inference is too quick!
- that is why it is called a fallacy
- Those who benefit may be lucky rather than powerful
Blame Fallacy: mistakingly concluding that the beneficiary must be exercising power
But, watch for the ‘systemically lucky’
- Some people or groups benefit as a consequence of how society is structured
● E.g. capitalists routinely benefit as a consequence of politicians’ drive to
ensure a strong economy
Two-dimensional
To higher the hierarchy, the lower levels are still implicit in the working of power.
Power as control of agenda
- (+ one-dimension) –(Bachrach & Baratz)
- Decide what gets debated, what gets discussed
● this is very important. Things that don’t make it to the table there can also not
be any conflict
E.g. Crensonon air pollution
- Would expect cities to devote a comparable amount of time debating the issue
- But, in some cities, the issue is only rarely discussed
● Cannot be described as an issue of power given only a one-dimensional
account –no conflict
- Crensonobserved correlation with prominent industry
- Lukes–example of power to influence decision-making process
Power of non-decision-making > making sure something does not get discussed so that
there won’t be any conflict and there will not be any decisions made.
Mechanism: Manipulation
- Selective information provision; media image, storytelling, shaping anticipated
results; preventing tactics
- e.g. company is struggling financially and want to fire people, they can make
discussion of lay-offs taboo, so there won’t be conflict between manager and
employees.
, Three-dimensional
Power as preference-shaping
- (+ first and second dimension)
- Most effective/efficient use of power –affects what people want to do so as to
correspond to the interests of the powerful
- Prevents or precludes conflict
● “The fight is won before it has even begun” (Parvin)
● making sure there is no conflict, to begin with
- it is not always intentional, but it can be
- Illusions (‘false consciousness’) that reinforce powerful interests (Lukes)
● we have beliefs about the world that are false in a sense. We believe they
benefit us but they benefit others. This benefits the powerful.
This can be office culture. New employees learn how things learn within the company and
they pick things up. This can prevent any conflict from the beginning.
Mechanism: Domination
- Articulating ideology; manufacturing consent; conformity; depoliticization
- Remember > does not have to be intentional domination, but it can turn that way
This is the most efficient use of power and can happen on different levels (society, group,
etc)
Ideology
Multiple usages of the term:
1. A worldview (‘My ideology is...’ cf. ‘My philosophy is...’)
- set of beliefs about the world
2. An approach that is ‘doctrinaire’
- elements of partisanship, extremism, dogmatism, impracticality, and
detachment from the real world
- close-minded, not open to questioning
3. The ‘end of ideology’ thesis (Fukuyama, Bell et al): elements of 1 and 2: no more
competing fundamentally different worldviews; in view of vindication of liberal
democracy, such disagreements put down to faults under 2
- the battle of ideologies has been won, and there are no more different
worldviews
Distinguish: pejorative / descriptive senses (Geuss 1981)
- prejorative > negative
- descriptive > no judgement
Focus here: pejorative;
- an idea associated with Marxism: roughly distortion of consciousness that occurs
because it serves certain interests…
Why power
Who should have (political) power
- who should be in charge
- democracy
- separation of powers
How should power be distributed
- within society
- justice
- equality
What constitutes abuse of power
- when is it harmful
- corruption
- bribery
- coercion
- bias
- concerned when decisions, actions are influenced by power
Care about power in three contexts (Morriss)
- practical
● what can you bring about, what others can do
● capacity and ability
- moral
● relevant for ascribing responsibility
● must have power to be blameworthy
- evaluative
● Forming groups means I gain certain powers, but also become subject to
power of others.
● We can evaluate societies in terms of the power they grant individuals to
control one’s life
So there are a number of dimensions for concern
It is important to identify power. We need to know what it is and who has it.
There is often disagreement about power. There is no one definition but a range that is
philosophically loaded.
,Cases of power
While the majority voted against the Intelligence and Security Services Act 2017 (March
2018), the referendum was non-binding and the public has no power to change the law.
The media repeatedly emphasised that the main issues surrounding Brexit were about
sovereignty and immigration.
Richard Thaler: “..but I think most of us would rather..have our kids be well educated...”
One-dimensional
Steven Luke > categorizes a range of power among three dimensions.
Power as prevailing in decision making > when there is conflict and two people want
different things, then power is how you get your way.
“A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that B would not
otherwise do”
Managers can have one-dimensional power > they can fire you if you don’t do what they
want.
Mechanism: coercion
- Authority, personality, control of resources, or uncertainty
- e.g. the threat of being fired
Young: powerlessness as one dimension of oppression
- Non-professionals take orders and rarely give them, unable to decide on conditions
of work, little/no work autonomy, unable to exercise judgment
- there is a hierarchy of professional careers
Problems
- Ignores why some issues relevant, and how people come to have preferences
- it does not explain different levels of power might work
- Subject to Dowding’s ‘blame fallacy’
Blame Fallacy
If power is the capacity to intentionally control events to make something happen,
and you want to measure who has power,
look for who benefits to infer who has power (decision-making procedure not always
transparent)
You need to look for the effects of power to measure where it is.
,Dowding–this inference is too quick!
- that is why it is called a fallacy
- Those who benefit may be lucky rather than powerful
Blame Fallacy: mistakingly concluding that the beneficiary must be exercising power
But, watch for the ‘systemically lucky’
- Some people or groups benefit as a consequence of how society is structured
● E.g. capitalists routinely benefit as a consequence of politicians’ drive to
ensure a strong economy
Two-dimensional
To higher the hierarchy, the lower levels are still implicit in the working of power.
Power as control of agenda
- (+ one-dimension) –(Bachrach & Baratz)
- Decide what gets debated, what gets discussed
● this is very important. Things that don’t make it to the table there can also not
be any conflict
E.g. Crensonon air pollution
- Would expect cities to devote a comparable amount of time debating the issue
- But, in some cities, the issue is only rarely discussed
● Cannot be described as an issue of power given only a one-dimensional
account –no conflict
- Crensonobserved correlation with prominent industry
- Lukes–example of power to influence decision-making process
Power of non-decision-making > making sure something does not get discussed so that
there won’t be any conflict and there will not be any decisions made.
Mechanism: Manipulation
- Selective information provision; media image, storytelling, shaping anticipated
results; preventing tactics
- e.g. company is struggling financially and want to fire people, they can make
discussion of lay-offs taboo, so there won’t be conflict between manager and
employees.
, Three-dimensional
Power as preference-shaping
- (+ first and second dimension)
- Most effective/efficient use of power –affects what people want to do so as to
correspond to the interests of the powerful
- Prevents or precludes conflict
● “The fight is won before it has even begun” (Parvin)
● making sure there is no conflict, to begin with
- it is not always intentional, but it can be
- Illusions (‘false consciousness’) that reinforce powerful interests (Lukes)
● we have beliefs about the world that are false in a sense. We believe they
benefit us but they benefit others. This benefits the powerful.
This can be office culture. New employees learn how things learn within the company and
they pick things up. This can prevent any conflict from the beginning.
Mechanism: Domination
- Articulating ideology; manufacturing consent; conformity; depoliticization
- Remember > does not have to be intentional domination, but it can turn that way
This is the most efficient use of power and can happen on different levels (society, group,
etc)
Ideology
Multiple usages of the term:
1. A worldview (‘My ideology is...’ cf. ‘My philosophy is...’)
- set of beliefs about the world
2. An approach that is ‘doctrinaire’
- elements of partisanship, extremism, dogmatism, impracticality, and
detachment from the real world
- close-minded, not open to questioning
3. The ‘end of ideology’ thesis (Fukuyama, Bell et al): elements of 1 and 2: no more
competing fundamentally different worldviews; in view of vindication of liberal
democracy, such disagreements put down to faults under 2
- the battle of ideologies has been won, and there are no more different
worldviews
Distinguish: pejorative / descriptive senses (Geuss 1981)
- prejorative > negative
- descriptive > no judgement
Focus here: pejorative;
- an idea associated with Marxism: roughly distortion of consciousness that occurs
because it serves certain interests…
