Session 3- Power: not as clear-cut as we woud like to think

Robert Dahl’s views about power serving as a control of behavior are highly interesting to say the least. His article has made me come to the conclusion that power can mean different things in different contexts. After reading it, I have come to understand that many people thought of as being powerful in some aspects, may in fact be lacking in power in others. Harold Lasswell’s mentioned base values, which are basically the resources that are considered to show whether power is possessed or not, are sufficient enough to prove this statement. Two of his base values are affection and wealth. It is fairly obvious to anyone that Nawaz Sharif is a figure not at all admired by many people within Pakistan, but his wealth is a great source of power.  
Another fascinating point which Dahl raises is that power is not always possessed by the figure or figures governing an area but that people being governed by them can exercise power over them by influencing their decisions with their loyalty or responses. One example which comes to mind is the state of North Korea, where the government has very conveniently removed all privileges from most of its citizens. In fact it has robbed them off some of their basic rights and brutally made them live a life of complete submissiveness which allocates a sort of power to itself and itself alone. Although this sort of power may not be considered as a sort of force that strives to benefit the people of the state, it can be thought of as the brutal force which results in a one sided authority. America on the other hand can be thought of as a place where although people cannot always change laws( even when they seem most unjust), they can freely express their views about them( take for example the recent protests carried out to serve justice for Micheal Brown and Eric Garner). The people of America can be thought of as powerful in the sense that their views are widely spread over the mass media, and can therefore be strong enough to influence the views of countless others and hence affect the government. The statement ‘Black lives matter,’is one known to almost all. In North Korea however, the people cannot really fathom carrying out such protests. They cannot even switch off their radios at home( can only turn down the volume) and can serve time in prison just because their family member from another generation may have committed a crime.