Trust and Power by Niklas Luhmann Michael King Christian Morgner

Author:Niklas Luhmann,Michael King,Christian Morgner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781509519484
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published: 2017-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

Part II

POWER

Introduction

There have been numerous and conflicting attempts to conceptualize the phenomenon of power in a way which is both theoretically and empirically satisfactory. Faced with this situation, a theory of power cannot content itself with a descriptive statement, with an analysis of its essence, which virtually incorporates by way of assumptions the results it elicits. Even attempts to analyse the concept on its own, and to divide the term into its different meanings, take us no further – unless towards wariness and, in the end, resignation. In such circumstances it is not possible to proceed step by step and thereby presuppose what power is. Instead, we must try to use more general concepts, which are in use elsewhere and which might serve the transfer of already established questions, and conceptual frameworks, which facilitate comparison and offer the possibility of relevant examination of other areas of interest.

If we look for issues of this kind, we find first of all the idea that power involves causing outcomes despite possible resistance, or, in other words, is causality in unfavourable circumstances. We also find recent concepts in exchange and game theory which emphasize the calculative side of a process which remains conceived in causal terms, but which is rich in alternatives.1 Analysis of these matters can pursue different paths.

There is first the possibility of examining such conceptual frameworks directly in terms of their logical consistency, of the possibilities of verification they offer, of difficulties in measurement and, finally, of their conceptual predilections.2 Up to the present at least, this approach has led to fragmentation of the theory of power rather than to its consolidation. This appears to be the consequence of over-hasty theorizing about one phenomenon in isolation. Alternatively, one could make use of a sociological technique (of proven value ever since Durkheim) of framing questions so as to reveal the basic premises of the institutions of the lifeworld, their existing interpretations and understandings. The questions might be the following: If power has to be a causal process, what non-causal foundations of causality are there? If power is to be reckoned with as exchange, what non-exchangeable foundations are there for exchange? If power is a game played between opponents, what are the non-game-playing foundations of the game? This question-framing technique refers back to society as a condition of the possibility of power, and seeks a theory of power indirectly, by way of a theory of society.

This detour we shall take in what follows. We shall be examining a particular macro-sociological system of reference, namely that of the encompassing societal system, and shall ask, primarily, about the functions of power formation at this level.3 This does not exclude the possibility of having recourse to experimental, socio-psychological research. But, in addition, we can take for granted instances of symbolic generalization which cannot be produced by individual cases of interaction, but only by society as a whole – for example the development of law. Above all, in this type of analysis at the societal level, we

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