ABSTRACT
This chapter distinguishes two main kinds of power: horizontal, as in peer pressure and mutual aid, and vertical, as in a command chain and in the priest-parishioner relation. It defines horizontal power or influence as the ability to do and to alter people's behavior without bending or harming them. The chapter finds democracy wedged between the two totalitarianisms. It deals with contentious politics as usual. The chapter looks at drastic political change: regime change. It provides an elementary truth, that peaceful revolutions may bring radical changes, whereas vandalism and bloodshed may have no lasting structural consequences. Political contention, just like governance, has two faces: substantive and procedural, or about goals and means. Whereas the imperialist powers have typically applied coercive power, the others have typically used persuasive power, that is, negotiation and compromise. Economic power is the ability that private businesses owners or managers have to influence people's attitudes, values, tastes, habits, and votes.
