UNIT 3 THEORIES OF POWER
AEM 511 LEADERSHIP AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
In democracy, this is done by educating people on the issues and then voting in an election to choose leaders, or a referendum to actually
choose one option from several options. Competing power networks form political parties and offer only one leader or one option to the public, to simplify the issues to make decisions possible. After the decision, they do not fight it to the point of civil war, but wait for the
next election.
In dictatorship this is done by asking one powerful person to make the decision and then agreeing to force everyone to follow it. Anyone who will not agree are exiled, imprisoned, or killed, even if the decision is not very important, since the refusal to follow is taken as a challenge to
the power structure itself. There is only one power network and all others are forced to be obeyed or fight it. Civil war is much more common in a dictatorship than in a democracy.
3.2 Theories of Power Structure
According to Chitambar (1973), increasing attention and emphasis is being placed on the concept of power structure in the study of human behaviour in both urban and rural contexts, and three basic theories of power structure have been presented.
1.
2.
Elitist theory:
This theory was expounded by Mills (1956).According to him, definitive power is held by a small controlling
group of individuals, called elite, who exercise control over theestablished institutions. Membership among the elites consists of individuals who exert influence in various walks of life and who
share such influence with others to effect definitive control oversociety. The power elite then consist of a coalition of influential individuals that together holds the power to control the affairs of a community or nation. Members of the ‘power elite’ usually are
residents having status and wealth, from various walks of lifesuch as business, industry and prominent professions, with membership in many organisations, religious, political, public, media and communication services.
Mass theories of community power: These posit a common
core and hold that in mass society there can be few leaders. The
potential power of the masses gravitates through abdication of leadership by the masses to a small interested group of people who are desirous of exercising control over the masses. Thedifference between this position and that of elitist is in the
assumption of the powerlessness of the masses by the formerbecause of the nature of mass society. This situation is like self
imposed leadership without the consent of the masses. In the70
3.
case of mass theories of community power, the power elite, by careful design, usurp power to secure control over society.
Pluralistic theories: Pluralistic theories of social power structure describe contemporary community and national power as being dispersed in society among a large number of small groups, each holding power over each other and over society.
Thus, labour unions use various influencing devices such as strikes to exert influence over employers and to gain advantages.
Management, on the other hand, also has power and can exert influence through lobbying, the press and in various other ways
to counteract or limit the power expressed by labour unions. The
press can be a powerful influencing group to control actions of other groups and individuals. Farmer’s organisations that aresufficiently organised, form important power groups that can
pressure political groups. The pluralistic theories thus hold that the power structure is fragmented among power groups whichhave countervailing power over each other and society.
3.3 Importance of Power
Power is mainly one of the essential components of practically every organisation (Ogunbameru, 2004). Power according to Bierstedt (1950)
is required to inaugurate an association in the first place, to guarantee its
contrivance and to enforce its horns. Without power, there is no
organisation and no order.
Power is important because it is necessary for coordinated human activity. When power is not effectively exercised chaos results, and chaos is not acceptable for two reasons:
a.
b.
Persons become upset and insecure in the presence of chaos and Chaos precludes the synergistic benefits that are gained from
effective organisations. Power thus provides a refuge from chaos.
Having considered the importance of power, it is equally important to
consider the general attitudes toward power.
Power is generally viewed from three angles: evil, obscured and natural.
1.
Power is evil“Power corrupts and absolute power corrupt absolutely”. This statement by Lord Acton shows that power holders should be
looked at as potential enemies and usurpers of the rights of
people. Power is at times seen as taking away the rights orAEM 511 LEADERSHIP AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
2.
3.
Power is obscured
There is the tendency to always obscure power because it is evil.
Because of power’s bad connotation, a person seldom says he
wants power. Rather he says he wants challenge, the opportunity
to serve, or wants to do something important, among others.Power is natural
In the contemporary world, there is the idea that power is a
natural necessary feature of organisations. That is power is seen as neither good nor bad but as elemental. In fact, the benefit of modern civilisation could not be achieved without the visible exercise of power in some way.
4.0 CONCLUSION
Every society decides who should lead and for how long. Some
communities are ruled by a small influential group of people and such hold the power to control the affairs of the community. In another
instance, by design try to usurp power to secure control over society.
Extension agent need to study his environment well and then understand
the power structure being operated. This will enable him to knowimportant power brokers in the community to contact in times of serious decision making for rural development.
5.0 SUMMARY
Basically, this discussion considers three theories of power structure.
a.
b.
c.
Elitist theory
Mass theories of community power and
Pluralistic theories.
The importance of power were also mentioned as:
a.
b.
c.
power is required to establish an association power is necessary for coordinated human activity power prevents chaos and disorderliness.
The importances of leadership in extension work are:
a.
new practices are accepted by rural people when and if theirleaders adopt them
72
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
i.
ii.
Discuss the three basic theories of power structure and the
position each represents.Why is power important in organisations or rural societies?
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Chitambar, J. B. (1973). Introductory Rural Sociology: A Synopsis of Concepts and Principles.
New Delhi: Wiley Eastern Limited.
Ogunbameru, O. A. (2004). Organisational Dynamics. Ibadan:
Spectrum Books Limited.
Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: “Power Structure.”
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/power-structure Assessed 7th
September, 2010
AEM 511 LEADERSHIP AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT