6 Sources of power
Mann's IEMP model
(1986: 24-27)
4 main sources of power
in developed societies, i.e. in
recorded history
- ideological power
= the social organisation of knowledge and meaning, generally based
on diffused methods but with authoritative aspects (religious institutions
etc.) (Other theorists might use culture as a general category rather
than ideology.)
derives from the necessity of socially defined meaning.
= the social organization of the extraction, transformation,
distribution and consumption of the objects of nature, based partly on
diffused (markets) and authoritative methods (e.g. modern corporations).
derives from the satisfaction of subsistence needs
mobilization of violence, the bluntest form of power; authoritative,
coercive, intensive but also extensive.
derives from the necessity of organized physical
defence
= institutionalized, territorialized regulation of many aspects of social
relations; authoritative
derives from the utility of centralized regulation
Political and international power
Political power tends towards being territorially centralized in rival
centres:
- Political power always concerns relations between
as well as within states
- Thus interstate relations are
connected to the basic categorization of power, and are not just a modern
phenomenon.
- But strictly speaking, interstate relations are not generally international
relations in a modern sense (states don't = nations in pre-modern times).