GOVT 6496 - [Power]

Fall. Next Offered: 2019-2020. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Permission of instructor required for M.A. students. Co-meets with GOVT 4496.

J. Frank, P. Katzenstein.

This seminar inquires into the interrelation between two meanings of the concept of power: “power over” or control power and “power to” or protean power. Control power is based on the notion that actors can shape the social context in which they operate in predictable ways. Protean power highlights unintended and unanticipated events and processes that destabilize or upset control. Control power focuses on actors’ abilities to maneuver in a world of risk to cause outcomes they deem desirable. Protean power highlights actors’ evolving agility as they adapt in situations of uncertainty. The two kinds of power circulate and interact in settings in which actor practices acquiesce, resist and innovate. This seminar will read political theorists such as Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Clausewitz, Foucault, Arendt and Hayek as they probe the meaning of power. (AM, CP, IR, PT)