Power operates through indirect, non-conflictual channels hidden below manifest conflict

Evidence

Other students of power, however, have seen such a limitation as unfortunate. While the use of power in manifest conflict naturally is of major significance, such cases may only reflect the visible part of what could be called the iceberg of power. In less easily discernible ways - so to speak, below the surface - power may play other and crucial roles in distributive processes. The power resources approach therefore focuses not only on the direct, but also on the indirect consequences of power, indirect consequences mediated through various alternative strategies and actions available to holders of power resources. — Walter Korpi, The Iceberg of Power below the Surface, 4

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the reader’s interest in ‘adversarial-attribution’ — the strong actor shaping outcomes without open contestation. — connects to: Manifest conflict reveals only part of how power shapes outcomes; Political actors entrench power through functional mechanisms as readily as formal legal rules — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 42
• DEEPTHINKING: The iceberg framing dissolves the assumed link between observable conflict and actual power asymmetry; it explains why felt grievance thresholds can diverge from real control deficits.