THE LONDON AMBULANCE PARAMEDIC PROGRAMME
in collaboration with the
PATIENTS' FORUM FOR THE LAS
The Three Dimensions of Power - LUKES
Steven Michael Lukes
One of Lukes' academic theories, is that of the "three faces of power" - presented in his book, Power: A Radical View.
This theory claims that power is exercised in three ways:
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Decision-making power
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Non-decision-making power
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Ideological power
Decision-making power is the most public of the three dimensions. Analysis of this "face" focuses on policy preferences revealed through political action.
Non-decision-making power is that which sets the agenda in debates and makes certain issues unacceptable for discussion in "legitimate" public forums.
Adding this face gives a two-dimensional view of power allowing the analyst to examine both current and potential issues, expanding the focus on observable conflict to those types that might be observed overtly or covertly.
Ideological power allows one to influence people's wishes and thoughts, even making them want things opposed to their own self-interest (e.g., causing women to support a patriarchal society).
Lukes offers this third dimension as a "thorough-going critique" of the behavioural focus of the first two dimensions, supplementing and correcting the shortcomings of previous views, allowing the analyst to include both latent and observable conflicts.
Lukes claims that a full critique of power should include both subjective interests and those "real" interests held by those excluded by the political process.
Stephen Michael Lukes is a British Political and Social Theorist. He is an author of numerous books and articles about political and social theory.
Currently, he is a Professor of Sociology at New York University and was formerly a Fellow in Politics and Sociology at Balliol College, Oxford.
He was then, in turn, a Professor of Political and Social Theory at the European University Institute, Florence, and of Moral Philosophy at the University of Siena and of Sociology at the London School of Economics.
He is a member of the Editorial Board of the European Journal of Sociology and a Fellow of the British Academy
