A saw a lesson power a while ago by a colleague S. Vargas. It was brilliant. It made me hearken back to the days when I first learned about the different types of power in Political Science 2.
I’ve amended the lesson, and used it since in a variety of ways to help students become aware of how they are influenced, and how they are influencing others.
What is power? (answer: According to Dahl, Power is the ability for A to make B do something that A wants)
What are the different ways that people exercise power over you?
This is what Wikipedia from Dahl’s webpage:
- Rational Persuasion, the nicest form of influence, means telling the truth and explaining why someone should do something, like your doctor convincing you to stop smoking.
- Manipulative persuasion, a notch lower, means lying or misleading to get someone to do something.
- Inducement still lower, means offering rewards or punishments to get someone to do something, i.e. like bribery.
- Power threatens severe punishment, such as jail or loss of job.
- Coercion is power with no way out; you have to do it.
- Physical force – is backing up coercion with use or threat of bodily harm.
When I learned it it was:
- Reason
- Legitimacy (It is perceived as the right thing beyond reason … Monarchies, Religious, Traditional, etc.)
- Expertise
- Utility
- Force (Or threat thereof)
- Charisma (Think Hitler, Jesus, Jim Jones,…)
How do you exercises power over people in your life?
Who exercises power over you?
If you had to rank or rate the types of power in terms of the “best type” of power how would you do so?