Politics and power in communities

Politics has a wide range of effects on cultures and nations. Politicians at all levels have the capacity to govern certain political, economic, and social facets of society by different means such as law, policy formation, and taxation, among others. There has been a significant change in the way government institutions operate in many parts of the world. Many nations have adopted electoral processes in which representatives are elected by the electorate. Communism, monarchy, and tyranny are examples of such government regimes. Communities are made up of both physical and human properties. It is within the powers of the people that resources within the society are transformed into consumable or finished products. To convert the materials into consumable products, the community members have to make choices. The choices involve some form of politics as the person or people making the decisions have to use some powers to ensure that their choices are accepted by the community members (D'Anieri 02-08).

To have an in-depth view of politics and power, it is necessary to explore the concept of the influence of power and politics in a community and how it brings a direct relation to the community activities. For one to be able to rule a group, organization, team or the community, there has to be an involvement of power and politics to be able to exercise their influence. Survival in the leadership circle entails the balancing of the skills of power and politics. Using a case study of a community called Parana, there is a discussion of how its leaders use politics to remain in power and how they may lose it.

Communities are organized groups of individuals that live in a particular area and are governed by a set of rules and share some common goals in life (Battle and Barnes 9-17). In these communities, as D'Anieri (12) states, politicians embrace tactics that ensure they retain power and control resources. Within the circles of power, the leaders influence the members of the society for the purpose of their interest.

The uses of power

When power is acquired, it is meant to be used to obtain or achieve some goals. When it is used appropriately, the desired objectives and goals are met. However, a poor exercise of power can be detrimental both to the leaders and the community members that they serve and hence lead to a defective power system. These scenarios are common among the inexperienced leaders with poor leadership skills and political influence (Battle and Barnes 19). The consequences of using power inappropriately become more pronounced to the authority of the community. It is critical to give power to institutions and not to particular individuals to enhance accountability. When a leader uses the powers conferred on him for the benefit of the community, productivity and massive development are experienced. If a society is headed in the right direction, the individual members of the community have the power to contribute to decision making, and people of good morals are rewarded so as to encourage others.

The positive power of leadership builds the confidence of the individuals and motivates the community members to work hard and behave morally (D'Anieri 12-15). Positive power makes the leader win the trust of the community members hence can take the community the right way about political and other socioeconomic decisions. It is necessary for political leaders to have respect to their followers to enhance faith in the governance structures (Battle and Barnes 22-24). Leaders with negative powers only use the community members for their own and selfish gains. Such leaders threaten the community members and use other uncouth ways and lies to sway the community members and influence them the wrong way. Under the influence of bad leadership, the community lags behind regarding development, weak relationship between the community leadership and the community members. These poor leaders do make decisions on behalf of the community in their favor for their selfish gains. Such leaders are corrupt and divert all the resources meant for the community for their benefit. The consequences are a disenfranchisement of the population.

There are a variety of methods of handling the issues related to power and politics. It is necessary to explore and focus on the concept of power, illusion of authority, and sources and lose of power. It is also critical to examine the political tactics and strategies used by those in power and how to use power to manage people effectively.

The concept of power and community politics

Power is an invasive part of community life that is used by the community leaders to accomplish their goals and to make their positions more secure. The community leaders who use power to succeed or fail in the leadership circle depends on how they understand what it is when and how to use power and the consequences. According to Battle and Barnes (24), on leadership and power in the communities, they note that people in leadership are preoccupied with retaining power to advance their communities interest. Leaders use several strategies to attain and maintain power (Battle and Barnes 24). Power is the fundamental energy that is needed to initiate and sustain power itself. It is the ability to initiate an idea and bring it to reality. Similarly, great leaders need the ability to achieve, create and build history in a diversity of ways (D'Anieri 16).

On pervasiveness of the concept of power, the concept of power has a long history in many societies (Bates and Barnes 29-32). Power is a relation among social actors that have got different influences. Those in position of power can, therefore, use their powers to assist others to achieve their objectives. However, power is considered to be the ability of those who possess it to initiate and achieve what they desire (D'Anieri 22).

The concept of community politics directly relates to the policy as who gets what, how and when (Nweke and Omisore). The use of community politics shows that political events can be used to overcome the rebellion thus implying the conscious effort to challenge the opposition in setting and prioritizing decision. In this study, it defines community politics as the application of power, with power perceived as a starting place for potential energy to control relationships.

The political frame

Battle and Barnes (39), state that political frame is an exceptional device for probing the notion of community politics as it makes some assumptions about community leadership and what inspires the leaders for their actions and what motivates their decisions. Since communities are organized groups of individuals who come together because they need each other, they negotiate a process as members combine their efforts to get with common objectives thus aggregating their powers (D'Anieri 26). People with different values, information, preferences, perceptions and beliefs changes slowly with time and at the end of it all, they find themselves under the same power and political ideologies.

The politics behind the power is the fight for personal spaces with the mission of who gets what, how and when (Nweke and Omisore) .The community plays politics within the government context as they influence things their way as power is the main thing that brings them all together with similar goals. Community objectives and the decision-making process come from embracing negotiations and bargaining for other posts among members of other coalitions. The greatest challenge is when the coalition disagrees on political concerns and how to balance technically (Battle and Barnes 42).

How leaders lose power

As organizations and communities embrace new ideologies, some leaders do not. Community dynamics do bring complex situations with different conditions that require new skills and creative approaches. Once the community is tired of the leaders in power, they come up with ways and means of getting other people into power. It is at this point the one finds that power and politics go hand in hand. The one in authority uses all other means plus the resources available to influence the community members to be on his side. When these leaders use all at their dispose to control people, they go the political way to maintain power. However, those in the authority loss because of their negative attribute. When the attributes are linked to the community’s dynamics, this leads to possible loss power and influence (Battle and Barnes 44).

Another factor leading to loss of power is technical incompetence where a leader is described as someone who lacks conceptual skills necessary to develop the vision, mission of the community. When the head becomes unethical or self-serving, they use their political influence to abuse power; they use power and political influence to contaminate ethical climate and influence others to follow their behaviors. Such leaders end up not being trusted, and at the end, they lose power and the political influence they had over others. Arrogance has also led to losing of power in the community where leaders talk down to others and for their self-importance to acquire power. Most of the community leaders are inaccessible and cannot be found quickly for assistance (D'Anieri 28). Such leaders with poor leadership skills are still able to stay in power as they apply political tactics to influence the community.

Conclusion

Politics and power go together. Those in power are using all possible means to them to ensure they stay in authority. In nations and communities that still have weak democratic institutions, leaders may abuse their power and put their interests above those of their subjects. They may be intolerant of divergent views of leading a community or country, and may then resort to dictatorial tendencies. Another thing is that once these leaders are in authority, they use political influence to sway people their way and accept their decisions which are always for their benefit. From the case study in the community, these leaders have always made decisions that advance their self-interests. It is, therefore, important to note that power is used to bring influence and for one to control others, one has to use political strategies. Countries whose leaders have the monopoly of how to govern always lead to slower gains in the socioeconomic aspects of the society. It is, therefore, necessary to build good governance structures that enhance people participation in the management of the affairs of a community. Countries that have embraced strong democratic systems and institutions progress in many aspects because they ensure that leaders have integrity and are accountable for their actions.













Works Cited

Battle, Juan, and Sandra L. Barnes. Black Sexualities: Probing Powers, Passions, Practices, and Policies. Rutgers UP, 204.

D'Anieri, Paul. Understanding Ukrainian Politics: Power, Politics, and Institutional Design. Taylor and Francis, 2015.

Nweke, Augustina N., and Bernard O. Omisore. "The Influence of Power and Politics." Human Resource Management Academic Research Society:, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 4 July 2014.











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