ABSTRACT
This chapter classifies force, manipulation and persuasion that are forms of power. Force and some forms of manipulation are not social relations at all involving reciprocal if asymmetrical interaction between self-conscious subjects. The ultimate form of force is violence: direct assault upon the body of another in order to inflict pain, injury or death. But the methods of non-violence adopted by some social movements, which proved so successful against the British in India and, against racial segregation laws in the American South, also exemplify force as a form of power. Manipulation may also occur where there is no social relation between the power holder and the power subject and the latter may not even be aware of the former's existence. Persuasion depends like other forms of power on resources that are unequally distributed. Persuasion is probably capable of achieving greater extensiveness than most other forms of power.
