Professional Documents
Culture Documents
of Power
Isidor Wallimann
Sociology Department
Syracuse University
and
Nicholas Ch. Tatsis
Sociology Department
State University of New York at Oneonta
and
George V. Zito
Le Moyne College, Sociology Department
Syracuse
Introduction -Dennis H. Wrong (1970: 54): ’The prob-
person to impose his will upon others Wrong) seem to imply that resistance is
despite resistance’. always present, while others (Bendix, Aron)
-Raymond Aron ( 1964: 101 ) : ’The chance ignore it completely.
of obtaining the obedience of others to a Since these are the major texts used in
particular command.’3 courses in American Universities, Weber’s
English commentators have avoided might The awkwardness of the form, however,
and offered power almost universally. In seems to demand,
English we do not speak of the redundant Within a social relationship, power means
use of political might, but of the redundant every chance (no matter whereon this chance
Downloaded from jos.sagepub.com at University of Sydney on May 3, 2015
232
is based) to carry through the own will Much of the uncertainty in the earlier
(even against resistance). translations can be attributed to the presence
We usually speak, in English, of of a footnote on page 28 of the text, where
‘imposing’ the will or ’realising’ the will. Weber recognises the ’amorphic’ character
The first points to the inception of an action, of power and the innumerable situations
the second to the termination of an action. wherein an individual may be in a position
For this reason, we prefer ’to carry through’ to carry through his own will. By so ack-
the will as closer in meaning to the process nowledging these situations, however, Weber
Weber had in mind, in impositi,on as well does not imply that Macht is not also applic-
as in term.ination. We will leave the literal able to group or collective wills. On page
translation in this last form, therefore, while 161, for example, Weber points to the Swiss
we pursue the contextual meaning. Federal Council as an example of collective
or collegiate rule. The phrase, den eigenen