Sociodynamics: An Integrative Theorem of Power, Authority, Interfluence and Love

Abstract

This is a tentative attempt at an internally consistent conceptual framework of social power. It is seen as a function of the situation, dependent on the supply of, and demand for, humanly acceptable resources at large, as well as an eventual complementarity of human wants. Concentration and diffusion in the demand and supply of these resources, and access to alternative markets, are hence crucial factors. Since sociomotive power requires access to resources irrespective of ownership rights, and interaction with others, the limiting factor in the case of mortals, unable to be omnipresent, is imposed by space-time. Involvement may, however, be simulated subject to diminishing returns. When resources cannot be exchanged or bartered, satisfactions only may be traded. Manipulative power derives solely from imbalances in extant multilateral power, which become manifest in the presence of conflicting demands. Unilateral coercion is thus a process associated, not with physical force, but with pivotal power. In personal relations, this may rotate, leading to the cultivation -of a coercion tolerance. Compromise is depicted as multilateral coercion. All social intercourse involves reciprocity and coercion. A neologism, interfluence, is introduced to denote the process of multilateral power exerted in the absence of conflict. Indoctrination, integration and disintegration are identified as bona fide processes of conflict resolution, though of uncertain outcome and tendentiously delayed in effect. Authority is ceded sociomotive power derived from the single resource of personal, social or societal sanction. Each is productive of complementarity but they are not mutually implicit. Hence, authority may be exercised coercively. Synergy is characteristic of inorganic synthesis; nevertheless organizations are the sums of their parts.