The Concept of

Politics and
Governance:
Power
WEEK3
 MOST ESSENTIAL LEARNING COMPETENCIES
The learner will:
● define power and recognize the nature, dimensions,
types, and consequences of power;
● recognize the nature, dimensions, types, and
consequences of power;
● Analyze the nature, dimensions, types, deployments,
and consequences of power; and
● Assess how power is exercised in different
situations.
 TERMINOLOGIES

• Concept - an abstract idea; a general notion.

• Extrinsic- not part of the essential nature of someone or
something; coming or operating from outside
• Intrinsic- contained wholly within the organ on which it acts;
motivation involves doing something because it's personally
rewarding to you.
• Coercive- the practice of persuading someone to do something
by using force or threats.
• Ingratiation- is a psychological technique in which an individual
attempts to influence another person by becoming more likable to
their target .
 “Power doesn’t corrupt people,
people corrupt power” - William
Gaddis
 Politics always involves the exercise of power by one person or persons to another person
or persons.

 Power is the ability to get someone, to do something he/she wants to accomplish, thus
making things happen in the way he/she wants to accomplish, thus making things happen
in ways he/she wants. Having the such ability, along with the exercise of power is an
influence.

 Thus, influence is the process by which a person affects the behavior and feeling of
another person.

 To influence a person there must be an authority which is the right to change another
person.

 Power is as well a prime ingredient of politics. However, there are instances that power
becomes cynical, brutal, and self-destructive affirmed by Lord Acton’s dictum.

 “Power tends to corrupt absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

 Source of Power
A. Reward power. It is the extent to which a leader can use
extrinsic and intrinsic to control and influence other people.
 Source of Power
B. Coercive power. It is the degree to which a leader can deny
desired rewards or administer punishments to control other
people and let them follow his wants.

C. Legitimate power. It is the extent to which a leader can use

subordinates’ internalized values or beliefs that the boss has a
right of command to control his subordinates’ behavior that if
legitimacy is lost, the authority will not be accepted by
subordinates. It is also known as formal hierarchical authority.
 Source of Power
D. Information power- The leader has access to and control of their
information. The people may protect the information to increase their
power.

E. Process power- The leader has full control over the methods of
production and analysis. Thereby, placing an individual in the position of
influencing how inputs are transformed into outputs as well as managing
the analytical process used to make choices.

F. Representative power- The legal right conferred to speak by the firm as

a representative of a potentially significant group composed of individuals
from departments or outside the firm.
 Types
of Authority
1. Charismatic Authority- It is an influence possessed by a person’s virtue
of their magnetism. Respect and even adoration to the point of leading
followers to make great sacrifices flows not from the legal basis of one’s
power but an individual’s personal “gift.”

2. Rational-Legal Authority- It is a leadership based on established law.

People obey the leader because they accept his/her power under the law.

3. Traditional Authority- Leadership is based on the culture that people often

give allegiance to the one who occupies the institutional position.

4. Coercive Authority- The power to use force such as police or military

force to demand obedience from the subordinates
 Conclusion or Summary
Power is one of the important concepts and plays
a huge role in politics, from governing how
decisions are made to how political actors interact
with one another. The channels of power are how
power is enacted. They can perhaps more readily
be remembered as 'head, hands and heart'.
Thank you!