Power Analysis

Abstract

Assuming that power lies at the core of politics, political science can be considered the study of power phenomena. According to Elster (1976: 249), an influential political theorist, ‘power is the most important single idea in political science, comparable perhaps to utility in economics.’ In a similar vein, realists in the domain of international relations conceive of power as the ‘currency of politics’ (see, for example, Mearsheimer 2001: 29). Indeed, the question of which actors own power is one of the oldest and most relevant in political science as the famous community power debate reminds us (Dahl 1961). It is striking, however, that comparatively little attention is currently paid to the explicit study of power. To the extent that such examinations exist, they mostly focus on the influence of political actors in specific policy fields and in single or several decision-making processes (e.g. Laumann & Pappi 1976, Kriesi 1980, Knoke et al. 1996, or Fischer et al. 2009).