ABSTRACT
In approaching the study of politics through the analysis of power, one assumes, at a minimum, that relations of power are among the significant aspects of a political system. Power terms evidently cover a very broad category of human relations. Political systems are often characterized explicitly or implicitly by the differences in 'amounts' of power exercised by different individuals, groups, or strata. The magnitude of C's power with respect to R is thought of as measurable, in some sense, by at least an ordinal scale; frequently, indeed, a literal reading would imply that power is subject to measurement by an interval scale. An ancient and conventional way of distinguishing among political systems is according to the way control over the government or state is distributed to individuals or groups in the systems. The closest equivalent to power relation is the causal relation. For the assertion 'C has power over R', one can substitute the assertion, 'C's behavior causes R's behavior'.
