As is well known, power is one of the fundamental political and legal categories. It is key to understanding political institutions, politics itself, and the state. Power is an integral part of politics. The inseparability of power and politics has been recognized as natural in all political theories, past and present. Politics as a phenomenon has a direct or indirect connection with power, as well as the activity of exercising power. Different social communities and individuals enter into various relationships: economic, social, spiritual, and political. Politics, in turn, represents the sphere of relationships between social groups, strata, and individuals that primarily concerns issues of power and governance.
The phenomenon of power has always received special attention from many prominent figures in both political and legal science. Each of them made an invaluable contribution to the development of the theory of power.
Modern concepts of power are extremely diverse. In the broadest sense, power is the ability and opportunity to exercise one’s will, to exert a decisive influence on the activities and behavior of others through any means—authority, law, or violence.[1, 56-58] Based on the above, power can be state, political, economic, familial, and so on. However, this approach also requires distinguishing between class, group, and personal power, which are intertwined but not reducible to one another.
At this point, we are interested in political power and its essence. Political power is the actual ability of a given class, group, or individual to implement its will in politics and legal norms. [2, 77-93] Political power is characterized by social dominance, a leading role, or the leadership of certain groups, and most often by various combinations of these qualities.
It should be noted that the concept of political power is broader than that of state power. Political power is exercised not only by state bodies but also through the activities of parties and various public organizations. State power is the core of political authority. It relies on a specialized apparatus of coercion and extends to the entire population of a given country. The state has the exclusive right to develop laws and other regulations binding on all citizens. State power, in turn, denotes a specific organization and the activities that implement the goals and objectives of this organization.
In science, the concept of sources of power, also known as foundations, is used. These sources are varied, as is the structure of social relations. The foundations (sources) of power are understood as the means used to influence the objects of power in order to achieve stated objectives. A generally recognized source of power is force. However, force itself also has specific sources. Sources of power include wealth, position, information, knowledge, experience, special skills, and organization. Therefore, it can be said that the source of power is the combination of social factors that create a prevailing, dominant, and dominant will. In other words, it is the economic, social, and psychological foundations of political power.
In addition to this concept, there is also the concept of «resources» of power—potential means that could be used but are not yet used or are underused. The entire set of used and possible bases of power constitutes its potential.
As we know, state power MENTAL4D can achieve its goals through various means, including ideological influence, persuasion, economic incentives, and other means. However, it alone has a monopoly on coercion through a specialized apparatus over all members of society. Consequently, the forms of power are domination, leadership, management, organization, and control. Political power is closely linked to political leadership and authority, which, in certain senses, act as forms of exercising power. The emergence and development of political power are determined by the vital needs of the formation and evolution of society. Therefore, power naturally performs exceptionally important specialized functions. It is the central, organizational, and regulatory control principle of politics. Power is inherent in the organization of society and is necessary for maintaining its integrity and unity. Political power is aimed at regulating social relations. It is an instrument, the primary means of governing all spheres of public life.
It should be noted that the concept of «political power» is closely related to the concept of «legitimacy.» Power can be legitimate or illegitimate. The term «legitimacy» comes from the Latin «legetimus,» meaning «in accordance with the laws, legal, rightful, proper, due, correct.» In relation to politics, legitimacy means its recognition, explanation, and justification.[3, 25-27] It should be borne in mind that the legitimacy of political power does not mean its legally formalized legality. Legitimation does not have legal functions and is not a legal process. Legitimate power is based on the recognition of the right of those in power to prescribe norms of behavior to other individuals. Legitimate power is power that is trusted and recognized as legitimate by the citizens of a given state, at least by the majority of them.[3, 25-27]
Thus, legitimacy is based on the conviction in the legitimacy of a given political authority. However, this conviction can be conditioned by various factors. Therefore, political science has developed a typology of the legitimacy of power.
The original typology of legitimacy was proposed by Max Weber, who identified three types.
The first type of legitimacy is traditional, that is, based on the unwritten laws of tradition and customs. The second type is charismatic, emotional-volitional, based on faith in the special, outstanding, supernatural qualities of a leader or chieftain. The third type is rational, based on the laws and procedures adopted by the state, and on reasonable judgments. [4, 483] The types of legitimacy identified by Max Weber are ideal in nature, that is, abstract, not existing in political reality in an «ideal form.» In specific political systems, these three types are intertwined with the dominance of one of them, which makes it possible to characterize legitimacy as traditional, charismatic, or rational. In other words, this classification serves as a tool for analyzing the legitimacy of power in each specific political system. Power is one of the central concepts of political and legal science. As B. Russell noted, “The fundamental concept in the social sciences is power in the same sense in which energy is a fundamental concept in physics.”[5, 123-125]
Definitions of power as a social relationship are primarily provided by behavioral theories, which emphasize the behavioral aspect (D. Truman), with the influence of the ruling subsystem on the behavior of those under its control being based on a wide variety of factors. Thus, J. Ortega y Gasset identified public opinion as the most important of these factors. B. Russell believed that power, as a special type of activity, achieves its goals largely by influencing people’s consciousness and emotions.[6, 71-73]
E. Toffler’s model, which posits three key factors of power: force, wealth, and knowledge, is quite authoritative in academic circles. The dominance of each of these factors is associated with different historical eras and different social systems. According to Toffler, the development of civilization leads to a situation where the most important basis for power will be not the power of coercion, but the power of knowledge. [7, 41-43]
A study of various interpretations of political power leads to the following conclusion: power is one of the most important types of social interaction, a specific relationship, sometimes between two entities, one of which obeys the orders of the other, through which the dominant entity realizes its will and interests. Based on the above, it follows that political power, being a part of power in general, is in turn subdivided into state and public. The concept of «political power» denotes the ability and capacity of all political actors to influence the political decision-making process, as well as their implementation, and the political behavior of individuals, social groups, and associations. It should be emphasized that state power is only one form of political power. As noted earlier, it is an organized system of government bodies, organizations, and institutions created to manage all spheres of public life. Unlike political power, state power has a monopoly on the creation of normative legal acts that regulate the functioning of society. Public power is formed by party structures, public organizations, independent media, and public opinion.
Furthermore, political power is characterized by a number of distinctive features. These include: legality, legitimacy, supremacy, influence, universality, monocentricity, effectiveness, and efficiency.
The legality of power means its legitimacy and legal validity. Legitimate power operates on the basis of clearly established normative legal acts. The legitimacy of power is the voluntary recognition of the existing government by citizens, their trust in it, and their recognition of its fairness and progressiveness. The supremacy of power is the mandatory implementation of government decisions (economic, political, legal, etc.) by all members of society. The influence of power is the ability of a political entity to influence the behavior of individuals, groups, organizations, and associations in a specific direction in order to shape or change people’s opinions on a particular issue, regulate the political behavior of subjects, etc. Universality (i.e., publicity) means that political power acts on the basis of law on behalf of all of society. Monocentricity denotes the existence of a national center (a system of government bodies) for decision-making. The effectiveness and efficiency of power lies in the fact that it is through concrete social results that all plans, platforms, and programs of power are realized, and its ability to effectively manage all spheres of social life is revealed.
Thus, political power is one of the forms of power, capable of regulating not only the attitudes of citizens to political processes, but also power that has its own sources and resources, with the help of which it is able to exercise control over the entire political life and activities of the state.