ABSTRACT
Steven Lukes tells us in Power: A Radical View that “A exercises power over B when A aects B in a manner contrary to B’s interests,” and that the three views on power that he considers in his short book-what he calls the onedimensional, two-dimensional, and (his) three-dimensional views-are all “alternative interpretations and applications of [this] same underlying concept of power.”1 is is important to emphasize so that we don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees, so to speak: the dierences among the three “views” on which he concentrates are very important, but attention to those dierences should not obscure the common conception of power-power as the ability of A to prevent B from doing what he or she would otherwise want to do-that they share.
