Key Concepts

Overview

This far-reaching study gives a concise and coherent overview of the debates surrounding the analysis of social power. The concept of power is outlined, and its main dimensions are explored through consideration of various facets – command, pressure, constraint, discipline, protest, and interpersonal power. The book examines both the theoretical debates that have arisen and the kinds of empirical materials relevant to them.

Topics covered include the nature of the contemporary state, global economic power, world systems, business governance, professional power, social movements, and family dynamics.

Power will be an indispensable introduction for students and researchers in sociology, politics, and the social sciences generally.

About the Author

John Scott is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex.

Table of Contents

• 1. Patterns of Power:
• Mainstream and Second Stream
• The Elementary Forms of Social Power
• Structures of Domination
• Counteraction
• Interpersonal Power
• 2. Command and Sovereign Power:
• States and State Elites
• Integration and Recruitment
• Economic Governance
• 3. Pressure and Policy Formation:
• Pressure and Polyarchy
• Decisions, Nondecisions, and Representaton
• Networks of Pressure and Policy
• 4. Constraint and Hegemony:
• Financial Power and Economic Constraint
• Political Constraint and Hegemony
• State Power and Class Hegemony
• 5. Discipline and Expertise:
• Government, Discourse, and Discipline
• Expertise and Professionalism
• 6. Protest and Collective Mobilisation:
• Structures of Collective Protest
• Theories of Organised Protest
• The Development of Protest
• Globalisation and Protest
• 7. Interpersonal Power:
• Power, Dependence, and Embodiment
• Patriarchy, Sexuality, and Power
• Interpersonal Power and Charismatic Authority
• 8. Coda:
• Acknowledgements
• Notes

Index.

Endorsements

“Using some simple but robust analytical distinctions, Professor Scott neatly and lucidly surveys alternative approaches to studying power and thereby illuminates various patterns of domination and of resistance in contemporary societies, focusing on the political and economic spheres.”

— Steven Lukes, London School of Economics

“Scott provides a well-documented and admirably succinct analysis of social power in all its diverse forms and their embodiment in both hierarchical social institutions and interpersonal relations.”

— Dennis Wrong, Emeritus Professor, New York University