The End of Power E-Book

anonymous

• Herausgeber: BookThug
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Summary
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 57

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

"In the twenty-first century, power is easier to get, harder to use and easier to lose", states Moisés Naím in his book The End of Power. In this review we outline his key ideas, which explain why power scattered among many actors, agents of new micropowers, poses one of the greatest current challenges.

Leseprobe

The decay of power

Just as Moisés Naím describes it, The End of Power is a book about power. In the opening chapter, he clearly explains its purpose.

He argues that power is decaying, it´s shifting from one player to another. Those who used to maintain power by brute force such as governments, companies, armed forces and labor unions, among others, are nowadays challenged by small groups which generally have fewer resources than they do, but possess more knowledge. This is epitomized by the increase of women, young people and small entrepreneurs in power, in comparison to the number of men, old people, and major businessmen. On the other hand, they must face another problem: They are more constrained in the ways they can use power. Naím states that power itself “is slipping away.”1

According to this author, we often attribute the causes of this change to the impact of technology, more precisely the Internet, and a shift in geopolitics which is displayed in China´s growing power in relation to the United States. For him, “In the twenty-first century, power is easier to get, harder to use — and easier to lose”2.

Naím mentions the leaders of the most popular companies and media organizations, and explains that in the past, their positions used to be more durable. But this has changed, as a result of the decay of power, and they currently retain their position for a shorter period of time. Besides, they have more competitors than their antecessors used to have and power is more constrained. Another fact to take into account is that the price they must pay for their mistakes is now higher because the relationship between those in power and their subordinates has changed.

Moisés Naím alludes to the case of James Black, a chess player whose inspiration to play chess stems from the way it let him wield power. He is one of the few chess masters who has achieved this ranking at a very early age (he was 12 in 2011).

But although this was an unusual achievement in the past, it is more natural nowadays, as young players often defeat the more experienced ones. Their nationality is no longer limited to some countries in particular (generally, the more developed ones), but they come from all over the world. This is in part due to the fact that the city has spread over the rural areas, children no longer consider chess an unknown luxury and have time to devote to it, and in addition, travelling is less costly. Another reason for this phenomenon is the improvement of education and children’s health. Thanks to the Internet, among other methods, children can learn to play, practice techniques, compete against players from all over the world and replay the games they prefer. But this is limited to those who have access to the Internet.

Following this example, the author explains that the situations generated in chess games can also occur in real life. One of the concepts he explains is the erosion of the barriers that used to protect the reduced space of the most powerful people. The tumbling down of barriers is produced by many factors such as demographic, economic, political and technological changes (in terms of the great scope of the information technology) and also by changing social values, expectations and norms. Other reasons are economic growth, the increase in migrations and the improvement of health services and education systems in poor countries. Naím illustrates this by referring to different sectors.

The first one is geopolitics. He says the number of sovereign states has increased, but not only do they compete with each other, but also with numerous transnational companies and non-state organizations.

For example, in times of war, military power is no longer important, but military and political tactics are. There is still a great difference between the enemies in a war, but this does not mean that the stronger one will be the winner. Small forces, according to Naím, can be identified as militias, insurgent groups, rebels and separatist movements. These groups have more chances of damaging their enemy with lesser expenditure.

Dictators and party bosses are also losing power. The emerging candidates come from different sectors and this generates confusion among party bosses and leaders.

Naím makes reference to the economic world, which is also affected by these changes. Although power is still concentrated in a few hands and the economic gap between the rich and the poor is growing, this is not the only tendency. Different surveys have proven that in times of crisis, the rich are the most severely affected.

Now, it’s also true that the wealthiest people are not necessarily the most powerful ones. The author explains that the leaders of big companies are the biggest power holders. Even though, as mentioned previously, their status is more unstable than some years ago. The same observation applies to companies. Naím mentions that transnational companies from less developed countries have outdone those from developed ones.

In regards to philanthropy, the number of small foundations and organizations has currently increased and the forms of exercising charity have changed. It is no longer restricted to great organizations and magnates have begun making more generous donations. Naím introduces the concept of “venture philanthropy”3 to refer to this.

Major organized religions are also losing power as a result of the emergence of, for example, Pentecostal churches and what the experts call “organic churches” -- non-hierarchical churches organized in communities.

On the other hand, Moisés Naím points out that even though the political changes produced by “occupy” movements (activists manifesting in public places) are scarce, they should not be underrated. These movements are fast and are organized horizontally, exposing the flaws of the monopoly of the traditional political parties.

According to the author, the small organizations mentioned previously represent the rise of what he calls micropowers.

The book explains that the consequences of these changes may be paralysis, instability and disorder in the presence of complex problems. On the other hand, different opinion surveys demonstrate that people no longer believe in political leaders, experts, the media and public institutions. Naím also highlights that“we are more aware of the issues and understand them better than ever before, yet we seem unable to tackle them decisively and effectively.”4

The author provides the following definition for a greater understanding: “Power is the ability to direct or prevent the current or future actions of other groups and individuals. Or, put differently, power is what we exercise over others that leads them to behave in ways they would not have otherwise have behaved.”5 Power changes in different situations and it requires some interaction between two or more agents, be it people or institutions.