Power is always negotiated, suspended and resisted rather than absolute.

Evidence

Not that the authorities were helpless in confronting these repeated acts of resistance and defiance; as we have seen, the Pasha and his officials passed numerous decrees to curb the phenomenon of desertion and to punish all acts of insurrection that they found most alarming and undermining to the whole performance of the entire army. Power, in other words, as much as it attempts to silence, to be all-inclusive and to penetrate minds and control bodies, is always constantly negotiated, suspended, and resisted. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1667

Categorization

• XREF: Directly engages and qualifies Foucault and Mitchell’s model of disciplinary power, which Fahmy explicitly discusses in this same passage. — connects to: Civilization has always faced revolts against its repression of nature. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1469; Legitimacy always rests on successful power, not pure rationality. — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 453