''The Anatomy of Power'' is a book written by
Harvard economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006), also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through t ...
, originally published in 1983 by
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
It sought to classify three types of power: ''compensatory power'' in which submission is bought, ''condign power'' in which submission is won by making the alternative sufficiently painful, and ''conditioned power'' in which submission is gained by persuasion.
In short, money, force and ideology.
It further divided power by source: power either stems from ''personality'' or leadership, ''property'' or wealth, or ''organisation''.
The book goes on to detail a brief history of the use of power, noting the broad arc of history in moving away from condign and towards compensatory and then conditioned power, and from personality and property towards organisation. Finally, it details what Galbraith views as the main sources of power in the modern world: government, the military, religion and the press.
See also
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Global policeman
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Ideocracy
Ideocracy (a portmanteau word combining "ideology" and ''kratos'', Greek for "power") is "governance of a state according to the principles of a particular (political) ideology; a state or country governed in this way". It is government based ...
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International law
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
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Power politics
Power politics is a theory in international relations which contends that distributions of power and national interests, or changes to those distributions, are fundamental causes of war and of system stability.
The concept of power politics pro ...
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Power Politics (Wight book)
{{Italic title''Power Politics'' is a book by international relations scholar Martin Wight, first published in 1946 as a 68-page essay. After 1959 Wight added twelve further chapters. Other works of Wight's were added by his former students, Hedle ...
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State collapse
State collapse is the breakdown of government authority in maintaining law and order. It is often used to describe extreme situations in which state institutions are no longer able to function. Rather than a temporary disruption such as a riot ...
*
Superpower collapse
* ''
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements''
References
External links
Abridgement of ''The Anatomy of Power''
1983 non-fiction books
Houghton Mifflin books
International law
Books by John Kenneth Galbraith
Books about political power
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