Calendar

Lec # TOPICS KEY DATES
1 Introduction, Opening Discussion

- How is power defined? Is it possible to use a single definition of power to describe a variety of social situations?
- How do people get and use power?
- How much power is lodged within personality and how much is part of the structure of the situation?
- How does the use of power sometimes mystify the targets so that they do not recognize that power is being exerted?
- Can power be equalized, or must some people always have more?
- What is resistance? How might we identify resistance in situations of institutionalized power?
I. Defining the Concept of Power: A Preliminary Analysis
2-3 What is Power? Action and Intention
4-6 What Power is Not: Influence and Conformity
7-10 Force: The Limiting Case
11-12 Leadership and Charisma: Personal and Inspirational Power First paper due on Lec #11
13-14 Authority (1): The Ability to Command
II. The Sources, Structure and Institutionalization of Power
15-16 Some Classical Views
17-18 Modern Debates Midterm exam
19-20 Authority (2): Power Redefined, Institutionalized, and Disciplined
III. Institutionalized Power: Examples and Transformations
21-22 Bureaucratic Organizations and Entrepreneurial Corporations
23-24 Modernity, Post-modern Colonialism, and The Global Community
25-26 The Possibilities of Resistance
27 Powersharing

Can Power be Distributed Equally?
Final paper due