Power can be defined, and exhibited in many different ways. It is one of the central concepts in the academic discipline of political science. Political scientist Harold D. Lasswell and David Easton had different views regarding power as a central organizing concept in political science.
Lasswell conceived the whole subject matter of political science to be a struggle for power. He believed that power stood alone at the heart of political research, and that the major concepts guiding it must be values and power. His book, Politics: Who gets What, When, How, revolved around the issue of power, and how it was held by the social elite. Lasswell describes a tendency in mass societies for power to concentrate in the hands of a minority, or elite governing group. The elite use power to acquire the desirable things of society, such as safety, income, and defense. Power was thought to be necessary for the attainment of various values. Lasswell adopted an exclusively power orientation toward political science.
Easton looked at political science and power as more of a control relationship. He looked at power as a relational phenomenon, not as a thing that someone possesses. Easton described it as a relationship where one person or group is able to determine the actions of another in the direction of the person or group's own values. If the person being influenced did not act in the desired way, the group must also be able to impose some type of sanction. He saw political science as the study of the authoritative allocation of values as it is influenced by the distribution and use of power. He did not believe that the struggle for power was the central phenomenon of political life. Easton thought power was important to political science, and understanding who has the power and how it is used can help us to understand how social policy is formed and executed.
Both Lasswell and Easton believed that power was an essential...