Power is the dream of many and the opportunity of the few. The quality of life of society as a whole and of each of its members directly depends on how it has managed to regulate relations in matters of management and subordination. Power relations have arisen together with an organized society and will die only with it.
Power
This term has many definitions, but they all boil down to this: power is the ability and ability to induce or force another person or group to fulfill their will, even despite resistance. A tool to achieve the goals - personal, state, class, group. A double-edged sword, depending on who possesses it.
Power relations
These are reciprocal ties about governance and submission. This is a relationship in which the manager imposes his will on his subordinate. To exercise his will, he uses law and law, methods of persuasion and coercion.
Power and power relations do not imply equality. They abide by the will, strength, authority and charisma of one and the voluntary or forced consent to obey the other. This is an integral part of society.
Socium is a complex system, an organism that needs constant regulation to maintain the health of the entire system.
Each person first of all thinks about himself. This is an innate egoism or sense of self-preservation. It is this feeling that pushes him to actions that, from his point of view, are good, but interfere with the rest of life. And when everyone is guided by this rule, chaos inevitably sets in.
A counterbalance to “confusion and vacillation” is the system of power relations at every level, in every area of society. Starting with the family and ending with the state or the alliance of states, everything rests on an orderly relationship that governs the rights and obligations of everyone.
What are they?
The emergence of power relations is possible only if there are two parties, one of which acts as a manager, and the second as a subordinate. Three components enter this concept:
- The subject of power relations is one who can command. One who has the ability and ability to influence the behavior of others. This may be the president, king, director, head of organization, family, an informal leader.
- The object is the performer. The person or group to which the influence (influence) of the subject is directed. Or it can be easier said - everyone who is not a subject of power is its object. One and the same person or group can simultaneously be in the role of both. For example, the minister: in relation to deputies he is the head, and in relation to the head of government - a subordinate.
- Another integral component of power relations is a resource - means that provide the leading person with the opportunity to influence the object. Encourage the contractor for the task performed, punish for non-performance. Or for conviction, when the first two means do not work or it is undesirable to use them.
The concepts included in the first two points are sides of power relations.
A resource is the broadest and most voluminous of these components. These are means, real or potential, that can serve to strengthen power by strengthening the subject or weakening the object of influence. They occupy a special place in the structure of power relations, since without them the influence would be nullified.
It can be:
- economic resources - gold reserves, money, land, natural resources;
- social resources - social benefits, such as position in society, prestige of work performed, education, position, privileges, authority;
- cultural and informational resources - knowledge and information, as well as the means of obtaining and disseminating them. Possessing information and controlling its distribution, the powerful have control over the minds;
- administrative-power - state institutions, army, police, court, prosecutor's office, various security services.
What kinds of relationships are there?
The power relations in society according to the subject composition can be divided into three large groups:
- political;
- corporate;
- social;
- cultural and informational.
By the methods of interaction between the managing and subordinate sides, relations can be divided into:
Totalitarian - the subject of power can be one person or a small group. Full control over the actions of subordinates or people, up to personal life.
Authoritarian - managed by one person or a small group. Everything that is not related to politics and major decisions is allowed.
Democratic - the subject of power in a democratic power relationship cannot be one person. It is managed by a small group chosen by the majority and accountable to it. The most important decisions are made after discussion and agreement of the objects of power.
Management features in politics
Political power is the most important pillar of the state and society. The imbalance in it will provoke shocks at all other levels of the organization of life of society and the individual.
Political power is divided into several levels:
- state;
- regional;
- local
- party.
Relations of management-subordination in politics have their own characteristics:
- They rely on the power of a state that has a monopoly on coercion. They are implemented both by the state apparatus and by parties, associations, and social groups.
- The parties to them are not individuals, but groups or peoples.
The main condition for the stability of power relations in politics is the legitimacy of power.
The legitimacy of power is the recognition of those who are affected by the right of the manager to control, and his consent to submit to it. If the majority of society does not agree with the fact that a person or party “at the helm” has the right to this and can provide a decent life for the people, it will cease to obey. Thus, the power relations between them will cease to exist. Or the subject of these relations will be replaced, and they will continue.
Features of corporate relations of management-subordination
Powerful relations in the economic sphere are distinguished by the fact that the resource in them is exclusively material wealth. They act both as a reward and as a punishment - a bonus for good work, deprivation of payment for misconduct.
The subjects in them are large companies on a national scale, on the scale of one company - owners and managers.
In the social sphere
The main resource in these respects is status. Social power relations often intersect with corporate ones, since the status of a person or group in most cases is determined by the availability of material goods. The more money and property, the higher the position in society.
