Economic power :ДЇor Marx, economic power is the basis of all power, including political power. Max Weber (1958) believed that there are three (not one) independent and equally important orders of power as under. How far such conceptions of power/knowledge are useful as against the well-established approaches to power, such as Marxism, is a matter for debate among sociologists. In his opinion, notions like вЂruling class dominationвЂ™ simply obscure the micro-realities of power.ДЇoucaultвЂ™s ideas fit very well with the shift towards diverse non-economic political struggles such as feminists demonstrations about вЂcontrol of bodiesвЂ™. Disciplinary power operates at the expense of individual freedom and choice. Disciplinary power is exercised in prison, schools and places of work.

It is concerned with the regulation, surveillance and government. He argued that a new type of power, i.e., disciplinary power, has evolved during the 19th century. Through his case studies of madness, medicine, prisons and sexuality, Foucault has highlighted the organization of knowledge and power. For example, FoucaultвЂ™s conception of power demands that we should approach it in a micro way, seeing power in all social relationships, and working in specific ways in all kinds of particular institutional settings-whether the prison or the clinic.ДЇor Foucault, we must explore the intimate relationship between power and knowledge. According to Steven Lukes (2005), power has three dimensions or faces: (1) decision-making, (2) non-decision-making, and (3) shaping desires.ДЇor some social theorists, especially those linked to postmodernism, the very notion of large-scale macro structures of power has come under serious attack. Power can be defined by saying that вЂA exercises power over B when A affects B in a manner contrary to BвЂ™s interestsвЂ™. The powerful can thus conventionalize their moral defaults.Д¬elebrated sociologist Anthony Giddens (1997) sees, вЂpower as the ability to make a difference, to change things from what they would otherwise have been, as he puts it вЂњtransformativeвЂќ capacityвЂ™. Alvin Genldner (1970) noted that power is, among other things, the ability to enforce oneвЂ™s moral claims. Thus, for Weber, power is the chance of a man or a number of men to realize their own will in a communal action even against the resistance of others who are participating in the action. It plays a part in family (husband and wife) and school (teacher and the taught) relationship also. He further writes, positions of power can вЂ™emerge from social relations in drawing room as well as in the market, from the rostrum of lecture hall as well as the command post of a regiment, from an erotic or charitable relationship as well as from scholarly discussion or athleticsвЂ™.

Many decisions are made without opposition because of the great power decision-makers wield.ДЄccording to Max Weber (1947), power is вЂthe probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability restsвЂ™. To summarize, it may be said that вЂpower is the ability of groups or individuals to assert themselves-sometimes, but not always-in opposition to the desires of othersвЂ™. Some scholars have defined it that it necessarily involves overcoming anotherвЂ™s will.

When a father slaps the child to prohibit certain acts, he is applying force. Force is the actual or threatened use of coercion to impose oneвЂ™s will on others. It sometimes involves the direct use of force. It is the ability to exercise oneвЂ™s will over others or, in other words, power is the ability of individuals or groups to make their own interests or concerns count, even when others resist. In the very simple language, power is the ability to get oneвЂ™s way-even if it is based on bluff. Sociologists are today concerned to analyse the diverse nature of power and that complexities it creates in human relationships, especially between state and society. In their study they take note of power as an important element that influences social behaviour. Sociologists are concerned with social interactions among individuals and groups and more specifically, how individuals and groups achieve their ends as against those of others.

Mass politics definition