ABSTRACT
Politics is the struggle for power in both the public and private sphere. When attention is turned to private power, the focus is usually on ways of conceiving power that highlight unity rather than division, process rather than conflict. This chapter argues against both pluralism and the analogous theoretical dispersion of private power under the rubric of the free market. It then argues against the opposite extreme that views power as singularly concentrated in a unified government or governing elite. Idealism and realism, two broad traditions in the study of politics, are rooted in the contending philosophies of the ancient Greeks and also have parallels in other systems of thought, including Indian and Chinese thought. Gaining state power is one of the means by which property is secured and increased, but it is never the sole locus of political struggle.
