Balancing the Three Sources of Power -- Persuasion, Exchange, and Force

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6. Civic Knowledge and Skills

In 1989, Kenneth Boulding published a book entitled the Three Faces of Power, which argued that power can take one of three forms, threats (coercive power), exchange (the power to get things done through negotiation and compromise), and love (he said that "if love seems to strong a word," think "respect).  Here he is basically talking about the integrative social ties that hold people together, regardless of what they might get in return.

A colleague of ours and Kenneth's (also a friend and mentor), Paul Wehr, coined the term "power strategy mix." Paul's notion was that it was rare that people use one kind of power alone. Rather, they usually use a mixture of forms of power — legitimate coercion, for instance, occurs when police enforce traffic laws.  Legitimacy of the laws is the integrative system at work, while the police enforcement is a coercive approach to get us all to drive safely. When negotiations happen according to an agreed upon set of rules, that is a combination of integrative and exchange power. 

This section of the guide explores all three of these forms of power in more detail, and discusses how they can be optimally balanced to get what one wants, with a minimum of backlash and the most stability going forward.

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