PHIL-215 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Parking Enforcement Officer
Document Summary
Social power is a capacity we have as social agents to influence how things go in the social world. A first point to make is that power can operate actively or passively. Consider, for example, the power that a traffic warden has over drivers, which consists in the fact that she can fine them for a parking offence. Sometimes this power operates actively, as it does when she actually imposes a fine. But it is crucial that it also operates passively, as it does whenever her ability to impose such a fine influences a person"s parking behaviour. A second point is that, since power is a capacity, and a capacity persists through periods when it is not being realized, power exists even while it is not being realized in action. So far, we have been considering power as a capacity on the part of social agents (individuals, groups, or institutions) exercised in respect of other social agents.
