Decoding Power Dynamics

Sabir Khan

Peshawar: Which one is first, power or politics? It is one of the most puzzling questions.

Before discussing power, human nature needs to be examined.

Human nature has some traits that affect and establish his behavior and actions. In these traits, eagerness plays the role of bedrock. It sparks a passion for superiority and subjugation. It may be selfless or selfish. This eagerness generates an idea in the human mind. It channels all the human resources to materialize that idea. It becomes a goal to be achieved.

To achieve these perceived goals, the status quo ought to be challenged, which requires power. There is no other solution to break the status quo except power, either hard or soft. 

The concept of power and its nature are dynamic. It changes its shape with time, culture, geography, ethnicity, and, most likely, the current circumstances. 

Power means to rule over the minds of people by persuasion, fear, or force. It creates like-mindedness and its antithesis in a cyclic way. Hence, classes arise, and an unending struggle for power commences. 

Resultantly, the idea of politics emerges as a medium for persuasion, fear, and force. Politics is nothing but the art of grabbing power. And to get power is not a child’s play; rather, it is the most competitive race among human ideas. 

Historically, power has been achieved through the political mediums of force and fear. However, in contemporary times, persuasion is the major technique of politics to grab power. It is not due to the humbleness of the powerful classes but to the borderless connectivity of the frightened, forced, and persuaded people.

The sphere of the medium of politics is too wide to comprehend. The medium for grabbing power is defined by the consciousness of common people. However, the last decision lies with powerful classes, depending on the intensity of the competition. 

For instance, it is unknown whether the prehistoric era was matriarchal or patriarchal. Though recorded history shows that society has been patriarchal, men subjugated women by force, fear, and persuasion.

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These betrothed genders are in perpetual struggle for power against one another. So far, men have won this struggle with their physical strength and kept the status quo.

However, for the last two centuries, women, through their feminist struggle, achieved some power in Western Europe and Northern America. They have persuaded men, as they cannot frighten or force men. 

As the sphere of politics is defined by circumstances and goals, cultures and ethnicities also provide the medium. Commonly, culture is defined as the established system of behaviors, beliefs, and moods of an ethnic group with a common language in a definite territory.

To play politics, it is used to persuade people of their own culture to be superior and others to be inferior. For example, Hitler considered the Nordic race and German culture superior to the other cultures and races of the world.

Similarly, Mussolini said that Italians were born to rule. In fact, their motive was to provoke a sense of superiority in their people and prepare them for war. The idea and dream behind this provocation were to rule the world. In the same way, Arab, British, French, American, Chinese, Japanese, Persian, and Indian cultures are playing in the same field. 

In the game of power politics, religion is no exception. It is one of the most useful techniques to seize power. It is used to persuade, frighten, and force people to obey blindly without any question.

All the religions in the world consider their ideas to be true and godly. Due to the race for power, they consider each other bitter pariahs. Such as Islam and Judaism in the Middle East, Islam and Christianity in Europe and the American continents, Islam and Hinduism in the Subcontinent, and Islam and Buddhism in Far East Asia.

The Crusade war was fought between Muslims and Christians for about two hundred years to subjugate one another. The sphere of politics that uses religion has become so intense and narrow that the struggle for power has become interfaith.

Such as Protestants and Catholics in Christianity, Shia and Sunni in Islam, and the five stratas of Hinduism. 

Moreover, the state is also a tool of politics for powerful people to gain power. The origin of the state is obscure. There are many theories regarding the origin of states, but all of them fail to shed clear light on their origin. But in the context of power and thirst, an imaginary line has been drawn on the surface of the earth by the powerful people.

Up to some extent, it is true that in such a complex age, a global state or society is impossible. But the idea of a state is never a common man’s idea. When the powerful elites reached the conclusion that all of them could not be rulers at one time, the division of the world became a fait accompli.

They compromised according to their influence and power. It does not stop here; old states disintegrate and new states emerge in the same direction. There is no end to this process because the struggle among the powerful is a perpetual issue. 

This course of engagement left no stone unturned. Economy and technology are the limbs of powerful people. These are integral parts of human life too. These have been controlled by powerful people. They persuade, force, and frighten common people with their economy and technology.

In the same context, states show their power through their economic and technological advancements. Such countries as the USA and China are in constant struggle in these fields. Their competition is the most consequential engagement in the world. Because their alliances and friends are heavily dependent on their economies and technologies. 

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Furthermore, international organizations are established to sustain power and not let others enter their ranks. Take the example of the United Nations. It is the most powerful international organization in the world.

It is controlled by the five permanent members of its Security Council: China, Russia, the USA, the UK, and France. They control the affairs of the whole world in the UN through their veto power. Though the other member states, in the shape of G-4 and Coffee Club, are trying to enter the ranks, it is impossible to amend the UN Charter without the consent of the permanent members. It is their scepter to rule the world with.

Likewise, war is an intensive medium and the last resort of the powerful to gain, expand, and maintain their power. War is a double-edged sword, though, integral to the power game.

When an idea is unable to hold ground peacefully, it resorts to war. Or when an idea feels threatened or balanced by another idea, war defines the competition. For some people, war is holy, while for others, it is extremely decrying. 

Last but not least, elections to the government are a softer medium of politics to gain power. Mainly, it is influenced by rhetoric, populism, and propaganda. Rhetoric, populism, and propaganda use all of the above political knacks and many others to influence public opinion.

However, this medium contains the exchange of people’s power. Powerful people make political parties to win the competition of public opinion. While bargaining for their power, people demand service delivery.

In the countries of the first world, people are successful in gaining services while transferring their power. While in the countries of the third world, people are consistently losing their power for nothing. Though if the people are united, enlightened, vigilant, and cautious about the use and abuse of their power, then the elitist motives can be effectively controlled. 

This whole chronological description of power and politics reveals that when power is an elitist competition, it is Cloven feet. But when it becomes a bargain between common people and elites as a sacred trust, it is a source of services and welfare.

To change the mode of power from rule to welfare, it needs a constant check by the common people as their property. Thus, a true democracy has the potential to control the passion of elite ideas through an agreed-upon document.

People should know their priorities while bargaining and maintaining their power. Thus, power never dies but needs safer hands to be used.

Sabir Khan serves as a lecturer in political science at GPGC Bannu and can be contacted through: Sabirwaxir007@gmail.com