terms of structures and systems , as in Marx ’ s theory of capital for example , power is ultimately thought of as ‘ power over ’. 1
Clearly , regardless of how we conceptualise power , we seem unable to shake this deeper understanding of power as domination ; power itself is always exerted over someone or something else . In this picture , ‘ power over ’ appears to be best characterised by a sense of polarity insofar as one person or group is in a constant state of conflict or struggle to exert their power over another person or group . It is perhaps of little surprise , then , that within this picture violence appears as the ultimate expression of maintaining and perpetuating power itself . Arendt specifically points to thinkers like Weber , who understood the state structure as , ‘ the … relation of men dominating men , a relation supported by means of legitimate … violence ,’ 2 and Mills , who argues that , ‘ all politics is a struggle for power ; the ultimate kind of power is violence ,’ 3 in order to show the inherent relationship between power , domination and violence that emanates from this understanding of power as ‘ power over ’. For political realists like Weber , if the state is to exist at all , then , ‘ the dominated must obey the authority claimed by the powers that be ,’ 4 which forms part of a view that continuously maintains the entrenched , and supposedly natural relationship , between power and domination , culminating in the justification of the use of violence .
This relationship between power , domination and violence can be traced backwards , through Western thinkers like Hobbes and Machiavelli , to Plato who wished to , ‘ ensure that the ‘ ignorant ’ many would be led by the few who alone possessed reason .’ 5 By focusing on an understanding of politics concerned with the individual , or ‘ philosopher-king ’, Plato essentially removed the intersubjective co-operative nature of the polis , which initially favoured political relationships that existed between equal citizens , replacing it with ‘ work ’ or ‘ fabrication ’, which introduced a means-end reasoning into the political arena , transforming previously intersubjective relationships into ‘ subject-object ’ relationships between ruler and ruled . In this sense , Plato saw the role of politics as essentially dictated by the manipulation of people into an ordered , working
1
Elizabeth Frazer , “ Power and Violence ”, in Hannah Arendt : Key Concepts , ed . by Patrick Hayden , ( Abingdon : Routledge , 2014 ), 156
2
Max Weber , ‘ Politics as a Vocation ’, in From Max Weber : Essays in Sociology , trans . and ed . by H . H . Gerth and C . Wright-Mills , ( Oxford : Oxford University Press , 1946 ), http :// polisci2 . ucsd . edu / foundation / documents / 03Weber1918 . pdf , accessed 29 th May 2020
3
C . Wright Mills , The Power Elite , ( New York : , 1956 ), 171
4
Weber , ‘ Politics as a Vocation ’ ( 1918 ) ) http :// polisci2 . ucsd . edu / foundation / documents / 03Weber1918 . pdf , accessed 29 th May 2020 )
5
Keith Breen , “ Violence and Power : A Critique of Hannah Arendt on the ‘ Political ’”, Philosophy and Social Criticism , vol . 33 , no . 3 , ( 2007 ), 346