Power, authority and elites in government
Undoubtedly the conception of power in man has an emotional relationship because if we reflect throughout history, the first manifestation of power that man faced was precisely that of the power of nature, later a theological conception was given later of power and subsequently the power of man over man was known, which in his most modern meaning, is the power of the State, which is none other than political power.
Max Weber defines that "power is the possibility of imposing one’s will on the behavior of others". If we start from that budget we can infer that there are different modalities of power that can vary, example of this can be the power of faith, religion, physical force, psychological power or the power of money. It is important to make it clear that any mechanism that exerts influence on human behavior is an element of power.
Now for reasons of the writing developed here, we will focus on the conception of power and control, from the political power which is institutionalized through the State through legal norms.
We must mention that there are different forms of power that are manifested through the varied functions that those who hold that power over the social conglomerate, for example:
- Economic power: which belongs to the owners of the means of production, which knead fortunes at the ribs of the working class, in addition to influencing the market and the laws that regulate it, in order to influence the will of the will of the People who participate in it to induce the mass consumption of loans, services and products.
- The ideological power: used by the media, political propaganda, churches and all those instruments of influence that generate a psychological representation that influences the individual generating behaviors.
- Military power: due to the power they have over armed force, it allows a man or a group of men to control the will of citizens through terror and fear of military dams.
- Political power: uses the force of coercion as a reality because its legal basis allows it, this is the process of application of the law justified by the promulgation of the same. This is the exercise of political power.
As we can see, power is not a product of a specific source, in fact it can emanate from different factors, what is common is the search to legitimize that power and submit it to limits that directly or indirectly have led to legally regulate.
It should be said that the majority of power sources have to become a political power because if that is not the intention, it would be a factor of illegitimate and illegal power. Therefore, political power seeks its exercise from a legitimate environment, so that its domination is based on a principle of legality submitted to the legal system.
The power is precisely indispensable for the detentors of it because through it they execute the decisions with authority. Now, although authority is true, it is a concept closely related to power, but it is not the same.
If we consider power as the possibility of imposing the will of one over others and that is present in the legal system, what is the authority? We can affirm that it is the material legitimation of the same power, that is, regardless of its source, it is the legitimate exercise of imposition.
We can currently observe it in the health emergency originated by the Covid-19 Pandemia, the authority has issued an administrative act that regulates the departures of citizens through a peak and cedula. The holders of power have the authority to restrict fundamental rights of the social group on the eve of protecting everyone’s health.
In this sense, we can talk about authority as the right to order and be obeyed, which obviously implies the supra-subordination relationship, therefore we can affirm that the authority reflects the subject’s understanding that performs functions established in the legal system which which is would have the synonym of an official.
Now referring to the detentors of power is possible to be able to confuse them with usurpers of power without legitimation, so it is important to clarify that in this sense we only refer to those individuals who through politics have come to power, therefore they are found legitimated and can be called rulers and has an immersed authority in their faculties.
These rulers belong to the political elite, which make decisions through administrative acts that create, modify or extinguish the legal situations of individuals living in society.
Therefore, if we analyze the legitimate power, this conceptual trilogy between power-political-government is undeniable. We have previously defined the notion of power but we must ask ourselves. What is policy? And what is government?
In classical political theory which focused on developing a definition for the good form of government and a good sense of state, the idea of a common good that must be institutionalized prevailed. However, if we get ahead in time we must definitely mention Machiavelli who develops his theory in the reason of the State and we can observe a change towards politics, with a theory defined as the trade of power or the art of governing.
It is for these reasons that Weber can be considered as the last of this lineage with a sociology conception of politics and government.
Weber affirms that the means of politics is power and even states that politics has specific tasks that can only be carried out through violence. Following this Weber line develops the conception of struggle-poder-political. Defining power as we mentioned earlier in the ability to impose the will of one against the resistance of others. The fight shares a definition similar to power because she presents himself if in a social reaction the action that is sought is to impose one’s will on the resistance of a partner.
Weber distinguishes between violence and peaceful struggles which will exclude violence and define them as rivalries. Now the struggles for life or survival can be carried out without intention are defined as selection regardless of whether it is social or biological, which ends by concluding that if power and violence are interconnected by the definition of the definition of the Politics is then in its nucleus is marked by the fight is conscious (violence as a last ratio) or unconscious in the inevitable fate of the selective opportunities.
We can then affirm that the concept of power is marked by a link between these two and complete a conceptual circle that raises politics as an existential struggle. If this is then the government would be the reflection of that struggle, which is in the hands of a certain group elected by the masses, which faced in a struggle for power generating that some political groups are victors and other losers.
The Government as such is defined as the Pilar of the State, which receives the administration and direction of a nation in a democratic system through an electoral process. In modern and constitutional states such as that of our country there is a legal pyramidal order based on that Kelsen pyramid, but there is also a division of political power, triparty division of power. (Executive Branch, Legislative Branch, Judicial Branch) Precisely looking for a counterweight powers.
We already mentioned that need that the ancient Greeks saw, in a good functioning of the State therefore a good government, and also that change of direction towards the political management of power. Where many times the end justifies the media.
From this attic we must review the ethics and moral to which the elites of that political power must be subjected. We must define what is the elite? That minority with command control over society’s individuals. These elites in our country have been perpetrated in power, rotating the same among bourgeois and aristocratic families that are destined to govern, and if it is also true that new political leaders with attraction ability sovereign the masses have become part of that elite, The reality is that they only seek the same, to bleed the coffers of the State, generate confrontations between a people with lack of education, serve the owners of the means of production and perpetrate in power.
I do not say that no changes are generated between those who govern, but these changes are usually generationally between members of a clan or even the appearance of the new leaders ends up being that, a new face that is still handled by the established power factors that we handle previously.
The need for an educated Colombia that understands these concepts and makes use of the control mechanism imposed by the same State, which seems to be the struggle of minorities in front of a minority that holds power that holds the power is prevailing. The social conglomerate is too large, as well as the problems we face in society. But if citizen participation were exercised with conscience and everyone was part of that control the elite that governs will be another that really seeks the progress and development of all.
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