Power as Aspect of Society

Power as Aspect of Society

Power as Aspect of Society

Task 1

In sociology power is defined as the ability of an individual or group to fulfil its desires and implement its decisions and ideas. It involves the ability to influence as well control the behaviour of others even against their will. According to Giddens power must be recognized as a primary concept in sociological analysis. It is potentially an aspect of all relationships. Power is an aspect of all areas of society and all institutions. Talcott Parsons defines power as a systems property a capacity to achieve ends whereas Mills viewed power as a relationship in which one side prevailed over the other. According to Max Weber power is a chance of man or men to realize their own will in a communal action even against the resistance of others who are participating in the action. Marxian analysis rejects the view that power is societal resource held in trust and directed by those in authority for the benefit of all (Borkenau 2001 236-548). Instead power is seen to be held by a particular group in society at the expense of rest of the society. The source of power in society lies in the economic infrastructure and gradually the power of the ruling class extends beyond specific economic relations and pervades the entire superstructure.

The conditions of domination and subordination of power have always been a constant in the history of human relations and its forms of social organization. For that reason, analyze the nature and dynamics of power is one of the most important elements of policy analysis and to develop prospective scenarios. It should be noted, as a precautionary measure, which by its very nature interdisciplinary social and profile, the comprehensive study of power in all of its edges, requires a major effort of synthesis that has an enormous size and complexity.

Whenever the subjects of study correspond to the area of political science and specifically to the field of International Relations Theory of the State and the school of political realism is the theoretical element driver. By its application will be an effort of synthesis aimed at discussing the ways in which the study of power has been renewed concepts of national security (Kerry 2004 254-361).

The main hypothesis argues that power remains an appropriate prism for interpreting national and international reality. This hypothesis is derived in two secondary schools. The first argues that the renewal of security concepts do not break with the theoretical principles of the realist school of power, as only fit a new social reality, by lowering the priorities of the military component. The second hypothesis states that strategic planning schemes allow interpreting state interests and national security objectives under a vision of rationalization of resources and results, beyond the paradigm of unlimited budgets under the argument of reason of state.

The power has gone in parallel with the history of man. Hence, in studies of the gregarious nature of man and of all forms of organization ...