Summary
Contents
Subject index
This major book provides an up-to-date and state-of-the-art overview of the contemporary theory and practice of the most central concept in political science: power. The concept of political power is introduced within a three-part framework: contemporary theories of power; applications of power processes and practices; and the implications of modern power flows across the globe today. The book explores the many structures of power in the contemporary world from theories of its construction and use, to its operation in policy networks, and its wider exercise at different levels in the political process, from the local to the global. Amongst the many themes explored are the reproduction and
Power and Authority, Resistance and Legitimacy
Power and Authority, Resistance and Legitimacy
Two Traditions in the Analysis of Power
When one examines the two main traditions in the analysis of power in organization analysis they bear evident, and opposite, historical traces. First, in conventional organization theory (as argued in Hardy and Clegg, 1996) the emphasis has been very much on power as an aspect of informal and illegitimate organization, a tendency that achieves its strongest expression in Mintzberg (1983). In this tradition power employs illegitimate resources to coerce others into the attainment of illegitimate ends by the exercisers of power; in contrast, where there is legitimacy there is authority. The reasons for this treatment go back to Parsons's and Henderson's translation of Weber (1948), where Herrschaft (literally ...
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