Power can be conceptually unified across agents, systems, and effects
Evidence
Power is possessed by an agent (person/group/agency) OR by a system 2. so far as that entity exercises OR is able (actually or virtually) to exercise 3. intentional OR non-intentional influence, 4. negative OR positive, 5. in advancing any kind of result whatever OR, more specifically, in helping to construct certain forms of agency OR shape the choices of certain agents. This schema allows us to see what unifies the different conceptions of power deployed when we speak at one extreme of the power of the effective agent to make things happen or, at the other, of the power of the system to keep revolutionary options off the agenda and so perpetuate itself. — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 395
Categorization
- DEFINE: Pettit lays out his master schema of power, situating domination as one specific form under a general concept.
- XREF: connects to: Power operates as modalized possibility rather than actual force or capability — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 629; Power can be analyzed as a symbolically generalized communication medium. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 583; Power’s symbolic code enables its cumulative differentiation through societal evolution. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 610 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Power operates as modalized possibility rather than actual force or capability
#complicates(0.80) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 629 - Power can be analyzed as a symbolically generalized communication medium.
#qualifies(0.75) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 583 - Power’s symbolic code enables its cumulative differentiation through societal evolution.
#expands(0.75) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 610 - Effective power requires asymmetrical preferences over avoidable alternatives
#qualifies(0.72) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 620 - Power functions as a communication medium through double selectivity between alter and ego.
#qualifies(0.72) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 593 - Treating power as relational redistributes agency toward the subordinated.
#qualifies(0.70)