Power structure

Short description: System of influence within a group of people

A power structure is the way in which power and authority are organized or distributed in an organization or society. Political sociology has an overall focus on understanding why power structures are the way they are in any given societal context. A power structure focuses on the way power and authority is related between people within groups such as a government, nation, institution, organization, or a society. Such structures are of interest to various fields, including sociology, government, economics, and business. Power structures can be formally organized, such as a military or a church. Conversely, a power structure may be an informal set of roles, such as those found in a dominance hierarchy in which members of a social group interact, often aggressively, to create a ranking system. A culture that is organized in a dominance hierarchy is a dominator culture, the opposite of an egalitarian culture of partnership. A visible, dominant group or elite that holds power or authority within a power structure is often referred to as being the Establishment. Power structures are fluid, with changes occurring constantly, either slowly or rapidly, evolving or revolutionary, peacefully or violently.

See also

• Authoritarianism, a political system characterized by the rejection of and opposition to diversity within a political body and the peaceful coexistence of different interests, convictions, and lifestyles.
• Biopower, nation states' regulation of their subjects through a multitude of techniques for subjugating bodies and controlling populations
• Elite theory
• Online participation
• Plutocracy, an institution ruled and dominated by a small minority of the wealthiest members