21A.245J | Fall 2005 | Undergraduate

Power: Interpersonal, Organizational and Global Dimensions

Readings

Readings and films are also listed by session.

Books Available for Purchase

Lukes, Steven. Power: A Radical View. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. ISBN: 9780333420928.

Goffman, Erving. Asylums. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1961. ISBN: 9780385000161.

Appignanesi, Michael. Marx for Beginners. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1979. ISBN: 9780394737164.

Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. The Communist Manifesto. New York, NY: Penguin, 2002. ISBN: 9780140447576.

Giddens, Anthony. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780804717625.

Wrong, Dennis. Power: Its Forms, Bases and Uses. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1996. ISBN: 9781560008224.

Cuba, Lee. Writing About Social Science. New York, NY: Longman Press, 2001.

Strunk, William, and E. B. White. Elements of Style. New York, NY: Penguin Press, 2005.

Readings and Films by Session

Lec # TOPICS Readings/Films
1

Introduction, Opening Discussion

- How is power defined? Is it possible to use a single definition of power to describe a variety of social situations? 
- How do people get and use power? 
- How much power is lodged within personality and how much is part of the structure of the situation? 
- How does the use of power sometimes mystify the targets so that they do not recognize that power is being exerted? 
- Can power be equalized, or must some people always have more? 
- What is resistance? How might we identify resistance in situations of institutionalized power?

 
I. Defining the Concept of Power: A Preliminary Analysis
2-3 What is Power? Action and Intention

Gouldner, Alvin. “Basic Assumptions.” The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1970, pp. 52-54. ISBN: 9780465012787.

Simmel, Georg. “On Superordination and Subordination.” The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Edited and translated by Kurt H. Wolff. New York, NY: Free Press, pp. 181-189. ISBN: 9780029289204.

Wrong, Dennis. Power: Its Forms, Bases and Uses. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1996, pp. 1-20. ISBN: 9781560008224.

4-6 What Power is Not: Influence and Conformity

Film: “Obedience and Conformity.”

Asch, Solomon. “Effects of Group Pressure upon the Modification and Distortion of Judgements.” In Doing Unto Others. Edited by Zick Rubin. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1975. ISBN: 9780132175968.

Stanley, Milgram. “Behavioral study of obedience.” J Abnormal Soc Psychol 67 (1963): 371-8.

Janis, Irving. “Groupthink Among Policy Makers.” In Sanctions for Evil. Edited by Nevitt Sanford, Craig Comstock and associates. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1971. ISBN: 9780875890777.

Zimbardo, Philip, Craig Haney, W. Curtis Banks, and David Jaffe. “The Psychology of Imprisonment.” In Theory and Research in Abnormal Psychology. Edited by D. Rosenhan, and P. London. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1969, pp. 271-287. ISBN: 9780030745607.

7-10 Force: The Limiting Case

Goffman, Erving. Asylums. Garden City, NY: Anchor books, 1961. ISBN: 9780385000161.

Wrong, Dennis. Power: Its Forms, Bases and Uses. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1996, pp. 21-34. ISBN: 9781560008224.

11-12 Leadership and Charisma: Personal and Inspirational Power

Film: Riefenstahl, Leni. The Triumph of the Will, 1935.

Rustow, Dankwart A. “The Study of Leadership.” In Philosophers and Kings: Studies in Leadership. Edited by Dankwart A. Rustow. New York, NY: George Braziller, 1970, pp. 1-32. ISBN: 9780807605394.

Tucker, Robert C. “The Theory of Charismatic Leadership.” In Philosophers and Kings: Studies in Leadership. Edited by Dankwart A. Rustow. New York, NY: George Braziller, 1970, pp. 1-32. ISBN: 9780807605394.

Weber, Max. “Charisma.” In On Charisma and Institution Building. Edited by S. N. Eisenstadt. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1968.

13-14 Authority (1): The Ability to Command Wrong, Dennis. Power: Its Forms, Bases and Uses. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1996, pp. 35-83. ISBN: 9781560008224.
II. The Sources, Structure and Institutionalization of Power
15-16 Some Classical Views

Denby, David. “Aristotle.” Great Books. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1996, pp. 117-127. ISBN: 9780684809755.

———. “Machiavelli.” Great Books. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1996, pp. 194-201. ISBN: 9780684809755.

———. “Hobbes and Locke.” Great Books. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1996, pp. 206-220. ISBN: 9780684809755.

———. “Marx.” “Hobbes and Locke.” Great Books. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1996, pp. 338-352. ISBN: 9780684809755.

Machiavelli, Niccolo. “How a Prince Must Act In Order to Gain Reputation.” The Prince. New York, NY: Signet Classics, 1999, pp. 110-113. ISBN: 9780451527462.

Hobbes, Thomas. The Leviathan. pp. 344-261.

Pareto, Vilfredo. “The Circulation of Elites.”

Marx, Karl, and Frederick Engels. The Communist Manifesto. New York, NY: Penguin, 2002. ISBN: 9780140447576.

———. “Preface.” A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. New York, NY: International Publishers, 1979. ISBN: 9780717800414.

Appignanesi, Michael. Marx for Beginners. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1979. ISBN: 9780394737164.

Tocqueville, Alexis de. “That Aristocracy May be Engendered by Manufactures.” Democracy in America. New York, NY: Signet Classics, 2001. ISBN: 9780451528124.

Michels, Robert. “Democracy and the Iron Law of Oligarchy.” Political Parties. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1999. ISBN: 9780765804693.

Weber, Max. “Class, Status and Party,” and “Three Types of Legitimate Rule.” Theory of Social and Economic Organization. New York, NY: Free Press, 1964. ISBN: 0684836408.

Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1980, pp. 3-13, 17-35, and 92-114. ISBN: 9780394740263.

17-18 Modern Debates

Bachrach, Peter, and Morton Baratz. “Two Faces of Power.” Power and Poverty; Theory and Practice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Lukes, Steven. Power: A Radical View. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. ISBN: 9780333420928.

19-20 Authority (2): Power Redefined, Institutionalized, and Disciplined

Foucault, Michel. “Truth and Power.” In Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977. Edited by Colin Gordon. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1980. ISBN: 9780394739540.

Peller, Gary. “Reason and the Mob: The Politics of Representation.” Tikkun Magazine 2, no. 3 (1987): 28-31, and 92-95.

Scott, Joan Wallace. “The Pitfalls of ‘Scientific’ Feminism.” Tikkun Magazine 4, no. 2 (March 1989): 90-91.

Fallows, James. “The Case Against Credentialism.” The Atlantic Monthly (December 1985): 49-67.

III. Institutionalized Power: Examples and Transformations
21-22 Bureaucratic Organizations and Entrepreneurial Corporations Herzfeld. The Social Production of Indifference. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780226329086.
23-24 Modernity, Post-modern Colonialism, and The Global Community

Silbey, Susan. “Let Them Eat Cake.” Law and Society Review 31, no. 2 (1997): 207-236.

Sasson, Saskia. The Global City. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991, pp. 3-34. ISBN: 9780691078663.

Mintz, Sidney. Sweetness and Power. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1986. ISBN: 9780140092332. (Excerpts)

Giddens, Anthony. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780804717625. (Excerpts)

25-26 The Possibilities of Resistance Ewick, and Silbey. “Narrating Social Structure: Stories of Resistance to Law.” American Journal of Sociology 108, no. 6 (May 2003): 1328-72.
27

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Fall 2005
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