W3C2: politics & power Flashcards
Most important point:
Politics can be distinguished in all societies, but by no means all societies that anthropologists have studied have political institutions distinct from other social realms. […] kinship and religion are in practice indistinguishable from politics’ (Eriksen 2023: 241).
Politics is not a separate domain, it is intertwined. Holistic approach.
Most common definition of power:
the ability to enforce one’s own will on others’ behaviour’ (Max Weber, cited by Eriksen 2023: 242).
the ability to make someone do something they would otherwise not have done.
Power is not a property of an individual, but you can only see power as part of a relationship
Structural power:
is power relations embedded in the division of labour, the legislative system and other structural features of society (more Marxist)
Degrees of force in power:
- Coercion -> most strong, most costly
- Threatening
- Manipulation
- Persuasion
- Authority -> weakest
Use of coercion can be very expensive, so you need to justify it
Three conceptualizations of power
Weber: as an unequal relationship (by various means): People have power over each other.
Marx: control over the means of production -> power in structures
Michel Foucault: power rests in control of discourse: the way we think influences the way we perceive the world. Knowledge = power
Circular process: people with most power determine discourse, once the discourse is in place, it reinforces power relations
Three levels of power (Steven Lukes)
Power in decision making processes: actual, observable events
Power in non-decisions: what political issues are dealt with but not addressed explicitly?
Muted or powerless groups: whose interests never even reach the level of negotiations, are marginalized and made invisible
Ideology, definition:
‘ideology is that aspect of culture which concerns how society ought to be organised. […] Ideology is a normative kind of knowledge; it may be implicit or explicit, and it may be challenged’ (Eriksen 2023: 246).
Also: who is the rightful power owner and who not
There is an important role for rituals and ideology in making the social order appear natural and inevitable -> mystification
Forms of authority (Weber):
Traditional authority: Based on traditions, monarchy
Charismatic authority: Based on personal characteristics of the power holder, Nelson Mandela
Rational-legal or bureaucratic authority: authority is vested in law and rules
In practice these three forms overlap
Key issues in social sciences
- Structure and agency
- Social coherence
- Social inequality: How to explain this?
- Social change: how to explain change?
(o ther side: change is permanent, so we should explain the opposite of change)
Structure oriented approaches:
Structurally oriented viewpoints … emphasise the extent to which people are constrained in their actions and face a very narrow range of choices determined by structural factors that relate, for example, to class, geography, gender, social hierarchy and ethnicity.’ (Rigg 2007: 24).
Structures are powerful, individuals don’t have control over their lives
Most important structure based approaches:
Marxism: what matters is the relations of the means of production
Structural-functionalism: People change, but structures don’t. Mechanisms maintain the balance within social structures.
Structural functionalism
- People change, but structures don’t. Mechanisms maintain the balance within social structures.
- ‘The structure is thus to be defined as a set of relations between entities. Over a period its constituent cells do not remain the same. But the structural arrangement of the constituent units does remain similar’ (Radcliffe-Brown 1935:).
- Example of the Nuer (Evans-Pritchard)
Antonio Gramsci, the prison notebooks
- Marx argues what matters is the relations of production, the automatic byproduct is an ideology, religion etc. that justifies inequalities
- Gramsci: you also have to look at who controls the means of ideological production. Controlling the superstructure: mass media, social media, education, history
Agency oriented approaches:
‘Agency-oriented perspectives tend to emphasise the degree to which individuals have control over their lives’ (Rigg 2007: 24).
what control/power do people have over their lives?
Agent, definition:
‘I am using the term “agent” […] as someone who acts and brings about change, and whose achievements can be judged in terms of her own values and objectives.’ (Sen 1999: 19)
