Aspiration adaptation, not resistance, is the weaker party’s rational response to large power gaps

Evidence

Assuming actors to be rational, the power resources approach indicates that, where differences in power resources between actors are large, the weaker party may find it to be in its best interests, at least in the short term, not to attempt to resist the claims of the stronger actor and is likely, in the long run, to modify its levels of aspiration (Korpi, 1974). In distributive processes involving differently empowered actors, power thus may have important consequences without being associated with manifest conflict. — Walter Korpi, The Iceberg of Power below the Surface, 6

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: ‘Why the powerless don’t rebel’ — pairing Korpi’s aspiration-adjustment mechanism with empirical tests of grievance-threshold scaling.
• XREF: connects to: Rationally adjusting aspirations downward can suppress grievance despite large power gaps — Walter Korpi, The Iceberg of Power below the Surface:…, 6