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every day of your life you move through
systems of power that other people made
you sense them do you understand power
do you realize why it matters how are
something we're often uncomfortable
talking about that's especially true in
civic life how we live together in
community in a democracy power is
supposed to reside with the people
period any further talk about power and
who really has it seems a little dirty
maybe even evil but power is no more
inherently good or evil than fire or
physics it just is it governs how any
form of government works it determines
who gets to determine the rules of the
game so learning how power operates is
key to being effective being taken
seriously and not being taken advantage
of in this lesson we'll look at where
power comes from how it's exercised and
what you can do to become more powerful
in public life let's start with a basic
definition power is the ability to make
others do what you would have them do of
course this plays out in all arenas of
life from family to the workplace to our
relationships our focus is on the Civic
Arena where power means getting a
community to make the choices and to
take the actions that you want there are
six main sources of civic power first
there's physical force and a capacity
for violence control of the means of
whether in the police or a militia is
power at its most primal a second core
source of power is wealth money creates
the ability to buy results and to buy
almost any other kind of power
the third form of power is state action
government this is the use of law and
bureaucracy to compel people to do or
not do certain things in a democracy for
example We the People theoretically give
government its power through elections
in a dictatorship state power emerges
from the threat of force not the consent
of the governed the fourth type of power
is social norms or what other people
think is okay norms don't have the
centralized machinery of government they
operate in a softer way peer to peer but
they can certainly make people change
behavior and even change laws think
about how norms around marriage equality
today are evolving the fifth form of
power is ideas an idea individual
liberties say or racial equality can
generate boundless amounts of power if
it motivates enough people to change
their thinking and actions and so the
sixth source of power is numbers lots of
humans a vocal mass of people creates
power by expressing collective intensity
of interest and by asserting legitimacy
think of the Arab Spring or the rise of
the Tea Party crowds count these are the
six main sources of power what power is
so now let's think about how power
operates there are three laws of power
worth examining
while number one power is never static
it's always either accumulate or decayed
in the Civic Arena so if you aren't
taking action
you're being acted upon law number two
power is like water it flows like a
current through everyday life politics
is the work of harnessing that flow in a
direction you prefer policymaking is an
effort to freeze and perpetuate a
particular flow of power policy is power
frozen law number 3 power compounds
power begets more power and so does
powerlessness the only thing that keeps
law number 3 from leading to a situation
where only one person has all the power
is how we apply laws 1 & 2 what rules do
we set up so that a few people don't
accumulate too much power and so they
can't enshrine their privilege in policy
that's the question of democracy and you
can see each of these laws at work in
any news story low-wage workers organize
to get higher pay
oil companies push to get a big pipeline
of gay and lesbian couples seek the
legal right to marry urban parents
demand school vouchers you may support
these efforts or not whether you get
what you want depends on how adept you
are with power
which brings us finally to what you can
do to become more powerful in public
life here it's useful to think in terms
of literacy your challenge is to learn
how to read power and write power to
read power means to pay attention to as
many texts of power as you can I don't
mean books only I mean seeing society as
a set of texts don't like how things are
in your campus or city or country map
out who has what kind of power arrayed
in what systems understand why it turned
out this way who's made it so and who
wants to keep it so study the strategies
others in such situations used frontal
attack or indirection
coalition's are charismatic Authority
read so you may write to write power
requires first that you believe you have
the right to write to be an author of
change you do as with any kind of
writing you learn to express yourself
speak up in a voice that's authentic
organize your items
then organize other people to practice
consensus go practice conflict as with
writing it's all about practice every
day you have a chance to practice in
your neighborhood and beyond set
objectives than bigger rooms
watch the patterns to see what works
adapt repeat
sister
in this short lesson we've explored
where civic power comes from how it
works and what you can do to exercise it
one big question remaining is the why of
power do you want power to benefit
everyone for only you are your purposes
pro-social or anti-social
this question isn't about strategy it's
about character and that's another set
of lessons remember this power plus
character equals a great citizen and you
as the power to be one
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