Great dictators and noble monarchs, usurpers and legitimate heirs to the throne, presidents and emperors - all have one thing in common. Perhaps the most serious and significant engine of civilization can legitimately be considered a desire for strength, glory, greatness, if I may say so.
The strongest survives
This simple law, finally formulated by Charles Darwin, is indeed one of the most justified and undeniable for the entire existence of mankind. If you think about it, it was the desire for power, domination of the weaker ones that motivated a person to improve from time immemorial.
Even during the primitive communal system, there was an inclination toward leadership, the conquest and suppression of other applicants for the place of the strongest, leading, and not led.
Having formed at the dawn of time, this simple rule and understandable desire has survived to this day, preserved in the management system, both at the government level and at the hierarchy level in each individual family, group or group.
Philosophy of power
About what is the essence of any power, mankind has been thinking since time immemorial. In fact, it was this issue that has become one of the main ones since the end of the era of syncretism. Today, even the simplest, most ordinary layman occasionally thinks about the subject of what is the essence of any power.
The answer to it, it would seem, is simple and obvious - the essence of this concept lies in the power that can suppress a weaker individual or group. Nevertheless, such an understanding today seems rather superficial and not entirely legitimate.
In the era of great accomplishments and conquests, a law of this kind was completely undeniable, and the size of the army and its combat effectiveness were the determining factor in regards to gaining power. Today, everything is somewhat different - the president does not need to suppress the population to establish his own position, and the crown has been handed down from generation to generation in the UK for hundreds of years. It should be noted that not a drop of blood is spilled.
So what is the essence of any power in this case?
Suppression and charisma
As a rule, it is these two paths that are most effective in regards to gaining one or another status. Recall, for example, the Second World War and the painful desire of Adolf Hitler for world domination, the formation of a pure Aryan race. In this case, it is force pressure, aggression in relation to other countries and nationalities that acts as a lever.
At the same time, there are extensive US election campaigns during which presidential candidates ride around the states, proving to the people the necessity and the correctness of their election. Such a democratic path to gaining ground is based primarily on the charisma of a potential leader.
Why is it needed
To determine the essence of any power, you must first pay attention to its functions, purpose. Speaking most generally, they can be reduced to the formation of a kind of managerial mechanism in a particular area, whether it be government activity or a working, school or, for example, creative team.
Conditions of existence
The power system cannot be fully organized without at least two entities - a leader and a slave, which seems quite obvious. A more significant factor can be called a mandatory, a priori expression of the will of the ruling, which finds the corresponding expression in the activity of the repressed.
The essence and specificity
Paying attention to the regulatory managerial functions of power, it is impossible not to note its characteristic features. First of all, this, of course, inclusiveness, global. This kind of subject-object relationship, as mentioned earlier, is characteristic of any sphere of life. From the first feature, the second naturally follows: the inclusiveness of power, its ability to penetrate into all activities characteristic of man.
Also, the main properties of this reality include its asymmetry and inversion.
Resources and prerequisites
No phenomenon can exist without a sufficient base for this. The functions of power can be carried out only in the presence of certain resources, and in the greatest possible expression.
Thus, economic, material stocks have always acted as the most significant help in regards to gaining power over anything and anyone. For example, the general director of an enterprise becomes a leader due to not so much outstanding abilities, but as a result of the availability of a sufficient material base for remuneration of employees.
An important role in this regard is played by social resources: great popular support, sympathy of one or another group.
The legal resources include a set of currently available rules and regulations. And the administrative power elements do not require separate explanations at all.
Regimes and the state
What is the essence of state power? First of all, like any other, it is global in nature, extending to each member of a society. A distinctive feature of this kind of leadership can be called its sovereignty, relative independence from the power structures of other countries. In this case, one should understand the right to originality, the peculiarity of the managerial, regulatory component.
Finally, state power is naturally considered the most hierarchical and comprehensive at the same time. On the one hand, a legitimate leader has the greatest degree of influence on a particular phenomenon. On the other hand, his powers are distributed across various systems, ranging from parliament to mayors and governors.
As for the main political mechanisms, most researchers distinguish such regimes of power, or rather, their groups as authoritarianism, democracy and the so-called "emergency" management situations. The former, as a rule, include totalitarianism and socialism. The second group, based on the decision of the people, was formed in the distant era of Antiquity. The third - in the so-called time of coups and revolutions.