ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the concepts of power and domination, leading up to the concept of system of rule. It presents a general analysis of forms of coordination (hierarchy, market and network) and antagonism (conflict and competition) in social life as well as the place of modernity in social evolution. Sovereignty, political rights and representation complete the discussion of the basic elements of juridical-political modernity, still abstractly structured, which carried over into authoritarian collectivism, although it stressed in addition the notion of class power. Constituent power introduces a discussion of agency and the concept of the Constitution lends ultimate formal shape to the liberal infrastructure. The law cuts across the chapter, which also engages with the depersonalisation and the desubstantialisation of power in the framework of political-juridical modernity.
