What is “power”? Most people have an intuitive notion of what
it means. But scientists have not yet formulated a statement of the
concept of power that is rigorous enough to be of use in the systematic
study of this important social phenomenon. Power is here
defined in terms of a relation between people, and is expressed
in simple symbolic notation. From this definition is developed
a statement of power comparability, or the relative degree of
power held by two or more persons. With these concepts it is
possible for example, to rank members of the United States Senate
according to their “power” over legislation on foreign policy and
on tax and fiscal policy.