Drawing on at least 3 set of readings that have been covered in this section of the course, explain how social power has been understood.
There have been many different theories on social power and where that power comes from. The ideologies around social power have sparked many interesting thoughts over the years and have brought together many aspirations between classes in our society. According to Webber ‘social power is the ability to achieve goals even if other people oppose those goals. All societies are built on some form of power, and this power typically resides within the government; however, some governments in the world exercise their power through force, which is not legitimate’. There is an abundant source of power available amongst leaders and to them it can be …show more content…
The Marxist tradition in which he had matured in as a political militant was strong on general predictions about the course of capitalist development and about connections between economic crises and political transformation (Gramsci, Antonio. 2000). Gramsci however, has had a different view on the aspects on social power as many had misinterpreted Marx findings on social aspect of power.
Gramsci based his arguments around the ideologies of structure and superstructure, the concept of historic bloc, the ethico-political history, hegemony and political ideology. There was no adequate Marxist theory of the state or what Gramsci called the sphere of the complex superstructure: political, legal, cultural. In order to conduct his analysis, therefore, Gramsci needed to make a theoretical critique of mechanistic forms of historical materialism, most notably economism (Gramsci, Antonio. 2000). Pointing out the aspects that Gramsci touched on I will unpack the critical points around social power and how he understood it during his
There have been many different theories on social power and where that power comes from. The ideologies around social power have sparked many interesting thoughts over the years and have brought together many aspirations between classes in our society. According to Webber ‘social power is the ability to achieve goals even if other people oppose those goals. All societies are built on some form of power, and this power typically resides within the government; however, some governments in the world exercise their power through force, which is not legitimate’. There is an abundant source of power available amongst leaders and to them it can be …show more content…
The Marxist tradition in which he had matured in as a political militant was strong on general predictions about the course of capitalist development and about connections between economic crises and political transformation (Gramsci, Antonio. 2000). Gramsci however, has had a different view on the aspects on social power as many had misinterpreted Marx findings on social aspect of power.
Gramsci based his arguments around the ideologies of structure and superstructure, the concept of historic bloc, the ethico-political history, hegemony and political ideology. There was no adequate Marxist theory of the state or what Gramsci called the sphere of the complex superstructure: political, legal, cultural. In order to conduct his analysis, therefore, Gramsci needed to make a theoretical critique of mechanistic forms of historical materialism, most notably economism (Gramsci, Antonio. 2000). Pointing out the aspects that Gramsci touched on I will unpack the critical points around social power and how he understood it during his