POLS1002 Study Guide - Final Guide: Robert A. Dahl, Hard Power, Soft Power
I: Terms
Power, Legitimacy, & Authority
What is Power?
• Power is defined by Robert Dahl as the ability of one actor to get another actor to do something
they would have done otherwise.
- Power= A has power over B to the extent that A can get B to do something he would not
otherwise do.
- Power is a relationship amongst and between people/ actors
- Power can be measured by the probability that one actor will do something that the actor
with ‘power’ tells them to do
• Power is relative:
- Power usually only means something in relation to somebody else’s power capacity
• Power is situational:
- Depends on context
• Hard power -> ability to exercise influence in politics through tangible means
• Soft power -> capacity to get what you want through the attraction of ideals/ideas
rather than hard power
• Power is multidimensional
- Economic
- Social
- Military
Dahl’s hierarchy of “Influence Terms”:
• Rational Persuasion
- Convincing an actor to do something
• Manipulated Persuasion
- Mislead an actor to get them to do something
• Inducement
- Offer rewards/punishment to get an actor to do something
• Power
- Threaten severe punishment if they do not do what they are told to
• Coercion
- Power with no way out and an actor has to do what they are told to
• Physical force
- Back up coercion with use or threat of harm
Luke’s 3 forces of power:
1. Decision making power
- The use of force/intimidation (stick)
- Productive exchanges for mutual gain
- The creation of obligation, loyalty and commitment
- Pluralist idea of power
2. Agenda setting (non-decision making power)
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- Real power exists with the person who can set the agenda
- You can decide what will be argued, can dictate the situation
- Preventing issues or proposals from being aired in the first place
- Professor tells student what power is
3. Ideological power/ability to shape people’s private desires
- The ability to influence another by shaping what they think, want or need
- Power expressed as ideological indoctrination or psychological control
• E.g. Create a false consciousness to convince the working class that what the ruling
class wants is actually what they want too
What is the significance of power?
• Power is a major factor of politics, if no one had any power over anyone else, politics would not
exist as we know it
• The different ways that power manifests have different impacts on the way we live our lives
- Hard power and soft power
• In politics, power is vital to the implementation of policy
What is authority?
• Authority is a means to concentrate and wield power. A person or group has authority if there is
general agreement among those involved that they have the right to control certain decisions and
that any decisions they make should be complied with.
• Different groups, institutions and individuals have limited brands of authority that extend over
certain specific ranges of behaviour.
Weber and Authority
• Three types of ‘legitimate’ rule through authority
- Traditional
• Passed down through tradition, social custom e.g. Monarchy
• Historical accepted
- Charismatic
• Obedience/adherence through inspiration, psychological domination e.g. dictators
like Adolf Hitler
- Legal-rational
• Obedience to uniform and codified set of principles, rules and laws which benefit
from those who are subjected to it
What is anarchy?
• Anarchy is a political system of governance with orderly self-regulation of a group of people by
themselves without recourse to any form of external enforcement.
• Essentially, anarchy occurs when a group of people can exist without any form of central
government making and enforcing rules on behalf of the people.
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- Anarchy is not chaos. Chaos only occurs when anarchy breaks down.
- Can be controlled by a form of authority
Institutions
• Institutions have rules that the individuals who are party to them must follow, creating a
predictability of behaviour.
Legitimate Government
• Democracy
- Legitimacy through elections and turnover
• Communism
- Legitimacy from having succeeded in revolution, and control of economic input and
output
• Constitutionalism
- Government is legitimate because it follows the constitution
• Fascism
- Following the traditional authority
• Monarchy
- Legitimacy derived from the divine right of the monarch to rule
[Compare and Contrast Points - Anarchy vs Government/ Institutions]
Sovereignty, Nation, and International Order
What is sovereignty?
• Sovereignty is the highest governmental authority in a territorial state. It is the authority of state
to make and enforce rules of conduct, laws and to control executive functions such as tax within
the physical borders of the state, with independence from external control.
1. Personal sovereignty:
- Head of state: The monarch
2. Parliamentary sovereignty:
- The supreme authority of parliament to make laws
3. Popular sovereignty:
- Supreme authority resides in the people and cannot be delegated
- People should make laws themselves via direct democracy
• I.e. The US declaration of independence
- “Governments derive their power from the consent of the governed”
-
How the 3 interact in Australia:
• Personal -> QE2 is the sovereign
• Parliamentary -> legal sovereign (to make laws)
• Popular -> elects members of the House of Representatives, which determines the executive
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Document Summary
What is power: power is defined by robert dahl as the ability of one actor to get another actor to do something they would have done otherwise. Power= a has power over b to the extent that a can get b to do something he would not otherwise do. Power is a relationship amongst and between people/ actors. Power can be measured by the probability that one actor will do something that the actor with power" tells them to do: power is relative, power is situational: Power usually only means something in relation to somebody else"s power capacity. Depends on context: hard power -> ability to exercise influence in politics through tangible means, soft power -> capacity to get what you want through the attraction of ideals/ideas, power is multidimensional rather than hard power. Dahl"s hierarchy of influence terms : rational persuasion. Convincing an actor to do something: manipulated persuasion. Mislead an actor to get them to do something.
