Power and rational choice

Abstract

ABSTRACT Addressing why those subject to domination seem to acquiesce willingly, Dowding and I disagree. Dowding appeals to luck; I claim it is likely to be power. Dowding’s view, at its strongest, views power narrowly: having power is having the capacity intentionally and observably to mobilize resources to advance one’s interests. My three-dimensional view embraces the various means by which power relations are reproduced and which they in turn reproduce, sometimes through inaction, in unconsidered ways and across generations. Power is often hidden, unobserved, even inaccessible to agents and observers alike and can be at its most effective when least observable.