Large power gaps suppress visible resistance and lower aspirations.

Evidence

The ‘frustration-relative deprivation’ view holds that conflicts burst out when the gap between expectations and actual achievements becomes intolerable, that is, when relative deprivation increases actors’ frustrations beyond certain critical levels. 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. The behavioural approach largely overlooks those situations where differences in power between actors are large because it focuses explicitly on manifest conflict generated through decision making. It concentrates, instead, on cases where these differences are relatively small. — Walter Korpi, The Iceberg of Power below the Surface, 6 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The Berlin Wall fell for many reasons, but above all it was because the people of East Berlin said, “No more!” We too can be the authors of many “great and beautiful” new facts that reclaim the digital future as humanity’s home. No more! Let this be our declaration. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1661 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Rationally adjusting aspirations downward can suppress grievance despite large power gaps — Walter Korpi, The Iceberg of Power below the Surface:…, 6; Large power asymmetries suppress visible conflict by lowering the weaker party’s aspirations — Walter Korpi, The Iceberg of Power below the Surface:…, 6; Ordinary people’s refusal can topple even entrenched systems of power — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1661 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Large power asymmetries suppress visible conflict by lowering the weaker party’s aspirations #corroborates (1.00) — Walter Korpi, The Iceberg of Power below the Surface, 6
• Ordinary people’s refusal can topple even entrenched systems of power #complicates (0.78) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1661