What are the basic elements of the concept of power?

Power is the political force by which the subject of power acts on the object of power by virtue of and utilizes certain resources in order to realize certain interests. The concept of power refers to the views and attitudes of people, especially those who are in charge of state power, on the source, nature and how to use power, and is the ideological basis for guiding and implementing governing activities. "For whom the power is granted", "for whom the government is enforced", "for whom the benefits are sought", is the basic question of the concept of power.

First, we look at the origin and nature of power. Engels had made a comprehensive and profound examination of the formation and development of power, thus historically revealing the essence of power. In describing the origin of power, he pointed out that, in the primitive commune, there existed from the beginning a certain ****same interest, and the work of safeguarding this interest, though under the supervision of the whole body, could not but be assumed by the individual members, such as the settlement of disputes, the curbing of individual overstepping of authority, and the carrying out of religious functions in the very primitive state. These positions were given a sort of plenary power, which was the germ of state power. From this passage we can see that power has its origin in the association of men in society and in the necessary management of social combinations, and that its basic form of existence is a function, a position, which is assumed by individual members of society.

From this point on, power has its social nature: a social management duty, a coercive, regulating force. Power as a social management duty not only serves the function of regulating social activities, but also implements the role of defending interests in the whole society. Therefore, from the point of view of social interests, power is also a means to seek and maintain social interests. Power is the functional nature of power as a duty to regulate social activities, and power is the interest nature of power as a means to seek and maintain people's interests.

In a society where there is a functional connection between people on the one hand and an interest connection on the other, power has a role to play in both, thus showing two levels of the nature of power: the functional nature and the interest nature. We can also see from Engels' discussion of power that in primitive societies, where no class exists, the functional and interest essences of power are the same, which means that both the duty and interest roles of power are all-social.

Secondly, let's look at the Marxist view of power. The materialist concept of history founded by Marx provides a scientific methodology for us to understand social and historical phenomena, including the phenomenon of power, and is the basic guideline we must follow to study the issue of power. In Marx's view, power is a social phenomenon, but it is first of all a political phenomenon, a political category closely linked to the emergence of the state; secondly power is a historical phenomenon, a historical category. At the same time power is based on the conflict of interests and benefits; finally power is a realistic force, an organized and institutionalized force. Power relies on the force of reality in order to be implemented, with a certain institutional basis as the basis of its own legitimacy.

Power is always dependent on a certain subject, the form of the subject is different, power and its performance is also different. At the same time, because the subject is a person as a social being, and therefore power is always embodied in a particular social relationship. This means that there is no power in the natural world. Only in the interactions between people, in order to make the interactions between people can be carried out, it is necessary to establish the power, define the power, regulate the operation of power, just as Foucault pointed out, the power is spread in all corners of social life, so as to constitute a kind of ubiquitous network, there are as many social relations, there are as many as the power; there are what kind of social relations, there is what kind of power.

Power is always directed to an object. The object to which the power points as the receptor of the power is the purpose of the operation of the power, leaving the object of the power, the power and its operation will lose its meaning. Since social relations between people are always mediated by certain objects, the object to which power is directed can be either an object as a direct object or a person as an indirect object. In the former case, although the operation of power embodies the relationship between people and objects, the material interest relationship, however, because the object here is not a self-contained object detached from the person and his activities, but the personified as the product and result of the person's activities, and thus the pursuit of power over the object, although intuitively manifested as a relationship between the person and the object, in the ultimate sense, it embodies the relationship between the person and the person's interactions, the social relationship.

Power has coercive force, leaving the coercive force, power can not be realized. In a certain sense, power means coercion. Parsons once made an analogy: just as gold comes from money, coercion comes from power.

Power is socio-historical. Man is a socio-historical being, and power, which belongs exclusively to man, is of course socio-historical. There is no such thing as power apart from certain social relations. This means that in different social environments, people's power is different; in different historical stages, people enjoy different connotations of power; in different time and space conditions, the role of power is also different. The socio-historical nature of power means that power must be viewed in terms of particular social relations and their historical development.

Once again, let's look at the view of power. The view of power refers to people's general and basic view of power as a social phenomenon. The concept of power includes the understanding of and attitude toward the source of power, the purpose of holding power, the way of exercising power, for whom power is held, and for whom it is served. Since power is class and social in nature, people will not have the same views and attitudes toward power when they have different positions in society, different class attributes, and different interests to pursue and defend. The Marxist view of power is a new type of power based on the abandonment of the traditional view of power, and it is the most scientific, just and reasonable view of power in human history so far. The Marxist concept of power is essentially the concept of power to serve the people, and the core connotation is to hold power for the public and govern for the people. While studying and absorbing the Marxist scientific concept of power, we civil servants have repeatedly emphasized the need to establish a correct concept of power in any period of socialist construction as an important task that civil servants must persist in for a long time.

Our civil servants hold in their hands large and small powers, some of these powers belong to the public **** management rights, some are units of personnel organization and administration of business management rights. No matter what kind of categories we collectively referred to as these are called power, civil servants hold power in their hands, and human behavior is subject to subjective values, concepts and ideological domination and drive, that is, what kind of concepts will have what kind of behavior.

Since the civil servants hold power in their hands, and the higher the status of the power is greater, the more important position, the more prominent the role of power, and even some civil servants belong to the key positions of power. Therefore, establish and cultivate a correct concept of power for civil servants with a good grasp of their behavior in the exercise of power in the degree, can follow the correct power norms is of great significance. Therefore, since the 16th National Congress of the Party, the central government has especially proposed that civil servants at all levels should establish and cultivate a correct concept of power. Because about the power of the understanding, attitude and position is correct, then the use of power behavior and its habits may be correct. On the contrary, the understanding of power is incorrect, the judgment of power is the wrong position, then we can imagine in the reality of practice, he is in the wrong ideas and concepts under the guidance of the use of power, that may be correct, the answer is very clear, it is impossible to have the right behavior, will only lead to mistakes, to the party, the country, including individuals to bring about negative impacts and consequences, which is our understanding of the importance of the concept of power of a fundamental reason why to establish the concept of power, for the civil servants at all levels to establish and cultivate a correct concept of power. This is a basic reason why we recognize the importance of the concept of power, and why the establishment of the concept of power is aimed at civil servants, because only civil servants hold power.

The Fourth Plenary Session of the Seventeenth Central Committee of the Party made a very important decision to strengthen and improve the construction of the Party in the new situation, in the "Decision of the Central Committee of the People's Republic of China on Strengthening and Improving the Construction of the Party in the New Situation of a Number of Major Issues," the experience of the ruling party's construction of a summary of the six aspects of the last aspect of the last aspect of the construction of the style of work to be strengthened, and in particular, proposed to Rule the country first, the party must be strict, why so mentioned? That is because our party is now facing four major tests, namely the test of governance, the test of reform and opening up, the test of the market economy and the test of the external environment.

We look at the first test, the test of governance is what test? Ruling is to hold political power, is the test of power. Assuming that a level of organization and a leadership team holding great power in their hands do not have a correct concept of power, how can they stand the test of governing? Assuming that he has a wrong stance and a wrong attitude towards power, how can he exercise the power of management and leadership that he holds in his hands? This is not guaranteed, and therefore can not overcome the test of governance, so we say that the establishment of the cultivation of a correct concept of power has a very important role. So we in the implementation of the party's fourth plenary session of the seventeenth in the process, must really grasp to realize that we set up a correct concept of power where it is significant, because this is by no means a simple concept, more than a dispensable ideological awareness, but is directly involved in our ability to withstand and overcome the test of governance of the major issues.