![]() ![]() Power can be defined by saying that ‘A exercises power over B when A affects B in a manner contrary to B’s interests’. The powerful can thus conventionalize their moral defaults.Ĭelebrated sociologist Anthony Giddens (1997) sees, ‘power as the ability to make a difference, to change things from what they would otherwise have been, as he puts it “transformative” capacity’. Alvin Genldner (1970) noted that power is, among other things, the ability to enforce one’s moral claims. Thus, for Weber, power is the chance of a man or a number of men to realize their own will in a communal action even against the resistance of others who are participating in the action. It plays a part in family (husband and wife) and school (teacher and the taught) relationship also. He further writes, positions of power can ’emerge from social relations in drawing room as well as in the market, from the rostrum of lecture hall as well as the command post of a regiment, from an erotic or charitable relationship as well as from scholarly discussion or athletics’. Many decisions are made without opposition because of the great power decision-makers wield.Īccording to Max Weber (1947), power is ‘the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability rests’. To summarize, it may be said that ‘power is the ability of groups or individuals to assert themselves-sometimes, but not always-in opposition to the desires of others’. Some scholars have defined it that it necessarily involves overcoming another’s will. When a father slaps the child to prohibit certain acts, he is applying force. Force is the actual or threatened use of coercion to impose one’s will on others. It sometimes involves the direct use of force. ![]() It is the ability to exercise one’s will over others or, in other words, power is the ability of individuals or groups to make their own interests or concerns count, even when others resist. In the very simple language, power is the ability to get one’s way-even if it is based on bluff. Sociologists are today concerned to analyse the diverse nature of power and that complexities it creates in human relationships, especially between state and society. In their study they take note of power as an important element that influences social behaviour. Sociologists are concerned with social interactions among individuals and groups and more specifically, how individuals and groups achieve their ends as against those of others.
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