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Power and its Logic: Mastering Politics (Political Science)
Power is the essence of politics. Whoever seeks to understand and master it must understand its logic. Drawing on two decades of international experience in political consulting, Dominik Meier and Christian Blum give profound and honest insights into the inner workings of power. Introducing their Power Leadership Approach, the authors provide a conceptual analysis of power and present the tools to successfully exercise it in the political domain. "Power and its Logic" is a guidebook for politicians, business leaders, civil society pioneers, public affairs consultants and for every citizen who wants to understand the unwritten rules of politics.
308 pages, Paperback
Published August 27, 2019
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May 13, 2020
Power and Its Logic traverses the tightrope that connects theory and practice. In three well-written and well-structured chapters, the book investigates the field of political power and the role that political consultancy plays in it. The first chapter provides a general analysis of the concept of power, the second identifies the most central forms and resources of political power, and the third lays out the functions and tools of the 21st century political power consultant, in other words, a curriculum of power leadership.
The authors approach the topic of political power from a descriptive angle – without moralizations. This is the exemplary strength of the book. The authors convincingly distill universal principles that govern political power structures as such. Next, with a focus on representative democracies of the 21st century, the archetype of the political power consultant (homo consultans) is explicated. Having mastered the vectors of political power, the role of homo consultans is to advise power actors in their concrete exercise of political power. Here, the reader gains valuable practical insights into what factors specifically govern the dynamic relationship between power actors and those who, in a world of ever-increasing complexity, provide them with power expertise.
While the book is explicitly committed to a descriptive analysis of the field of political power and while the concept of power – in and of itself – may be morally neutral, the inquisitive reader will wonder about further-going normative implications. What are the kinds of responsibility structures that tie power actors and power consultants back to some – provisional but nonetheless concretized – conception of the common good? In an increasingly complex and globalized world, local societal issues are no longer governed just by the territorial logic of the nation state but are increasingly co-constituted by international and transnational power structures. As a result, actors involved in this emergent process of transformation – including homo consultans – are inevitably allocated growing areas of operation and correspondingly larger shares of responsibility. The question, then, is to what extent power consultants will become increasingly tasked with normatively charged roles. Under what circumstances should power consultants commit to (or refrain from) particular actions when they face emergent phenomena that appear to erode "less contested" conceptions of the common good? In turn, when "more contested" conceptions of the common good are subjected to the crucible of the public forum, how should power consultants contribute to a reasonably fair distribution of political capital and access to processes of deliberation? The inquisitive reader, now having gained a more thorough understanding of the dynamic between political power actor and political power consultant, will wish to learn more from the authors about the normative implications of the political power field in the 21st century.
The authors approach the topic of political power from a descriptive angle – without moralizations. This is the exemplary strength of the book. The authors convincingly distill universal principles that govern political power structures as such. Next, with a focus on representative democracies of the 21st century, the archetype of the political power consultant (homo consultans) is explicated. Having mastered the vectors of political power, the role of homo consultans is to advise power actors in their concrete exercise of political power. Here, the reader gains valuable practical insights into what factors specifically govern the dynamic relationship between power actors and those who, in a world of ever-increasing complexity, provide them with power expertise.
While the book is explicitly committed to a descriptive analysis of the field of political power and while the concept of power – in and of itself – may be morally neutral, the inquisitive reader will wonder about further-going normative implications. What are the kinds of responsibility structures that tie power actors and power consultants back to some – provisional but nonetheless concretized – conception of the common good? In an increasingly complex and globalized world, local societal issues are no longer governed just by the territorial logic of the nation state but are increasingly co-constituted by international and transnational power structures. As a result, actors involved in this emergent process of transformation – including homo consultans – are inevitably allocated growing areas of operation and correspondingly larger shares of responsibility. The question, then, is to what extent power consultants will become increasingly tasked with normatively charged roles. Under what circumstances should power consultants commit to (or refrain from) particular actions when they face emergent phenomena that appear to erode "less contested" conceptions of the common good? In turn, when "more contested" conceptions of the common good are subjected to the crucible of the public forum, how should power consultants contribute to a reasonably fair distribution of political capital and access to processes of deliberation? The inquisitive reader, now having gained a more thorough understanding of the dynamic between political power actor and political power consultant, will wish to learn more from the authors about the normative implications of the political power field in the 21st century.
Displaying 1 of 1 review