Mann, Michael (1942-)

Michael Mann is a historical sociologist whose main work, The Sources of Social Power, will, when completed, provide a history of power from the beginning to the present day. Two volumes have been published so far (1986, 1993), taking the story up to the World War I. He intends to take the story up to our own time in one or more volumes to come. Mann has also written a number of other books and articles, but The Sources of Social Power is the central statement of his view of power; the view is elaborated primarily in the first chapter of volume 1 and slightly revised in the first chapters of volume 2. The importance of Mann's work is that his definitions of the different sources of power, as well as his detailed arguments about their workings in various historical periods, are bound to inform the discussion about power for many years to come.

Mann argues that there are four types of social power, which can be distinguished by source. The first three—economic, political, and ideological power—are familiar to sociologists, although, as we shall see, Mann conceptualizes them somewhat differently from other thinkers. The fourth is military power, which is rarely considered or distinguished as a separate source of power in the social sciences (except perhaps in international relations). These are different types of power; they are autonomous and operate differently, even though they can also become intertwined. The initial letters of each of the four (ideological, economic, military, and political) thus lead to his IEMP model of power.

Several distinctions can be made in relation to these four sources: one is that the sources of social power are conceived of as networks that overlap and intersect and differ in terms of their spatial reach. Second, they take different forms, so that power is not only distributive, or zero sum, or A over B (which is how Karl Marx and Max Weber conceived of power). Instead, power can also be collective (Mann draws on Talcott Parsons here). Collective power is that whereby people cooperate to enhance their power over third parties or over nature. Finally, power can be extensive, with great spatial reach, or intensive, in which case it is more tightly organized. It can also be authoritative— that is, deliberate and coercive, or it can be diffused, which entails similar but not explicitly commanded practices.

These characteristics apply to all four types of power. Economic power, for example, can be authoritative and intensive when it applies to production in the organization of labor, or it can be diffused and extensive, especially under capitalism, when it applies to exchange relations, which tend to involve far-flung networks of buying and selling goods without a single top-down organization. This view of economic power means that Mann, unlike Marx, does not see economic classes as engaged in direct confrontation with one another, [Page 400]but rather as being organized through quite different types of power networks that are nevertheless always asymmetrical, such that the networks of ruling classes tend to be more extensive and cohesive than those of other classes. But economic power relations of class also typically overlap with or intersect with other types of power, such as ideological networks of religious power. Similarly, the organization of political power has, in the past, often prevented class politics from going beyond the boundaries of the nation-state.

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