Constitutive Power

Abstract

So far, power has been identified as something that is, first, exercised by individual agents in situations of conflict (in Chapter 3) and, second, a means by which some of those conflicts are skewed to the disadvantage of certain groups (Chapter 4). I have also discussed how the exercise and distribution of power by individuals is constrained and shaped by a more impersonal type of power embedded in bureaucratic organisation (Chapter 5). In this chapter, a mode of power is elaborated that works at a structural level of which actors are not always conscious. It is also recognised that although some human action may well be the result of calculation and the pursuit of conscious goals, not all of it is. In this chapter, I will take a closer look at the power embedded in the day-to-day unreflective actions and activities of party life and how it works to reinforce and reproduce social structure. I call this Constitutive Power.