It arises out of the libertarian notion that a man has free will and any such system pertaining to the seizure of personal liberties enlists as an offense. Well, political theory doesn’t run without its own set of contradictions and constraints. Coping with unchecked bubbles of personal liberties clashing with each other is the tightrope in this domain of human society. This, along with a number of other reasons condense so as to make way for tentation around the abstract term of ‘power’ which, in turn, allows for the advent of systems of control and accumulation of power. In a world grounded with a number of such systems with overlapping jurisdictions, an individual navigates through various systems of power in order to make a living. Ranging from the interpersonal level to the international level, the stakes for power vary greatly although the dynamics and outcomes for the wielders of power remain the same. The same remains the plight of those poor at power. Upon sharing, not everyone’s platter is served at par. Well, who serves them! It’s more like self-service and at times, it’s not even up for sharing.  

Mankind has witnessed leaps of development in the last two centuries. This, of course, has been rhetorical. Without the ideals of equality and liberty being introduced and the allegory of popular representation, democracy, sweeping in, none of these could have been possible. It was only when the educated middle class observed power, and began retro-questioning authority that capital got channeled to the deeper strata of societies. Men came up with ideas to handle the capital, working towards the making of an equitable society. In Africa and Asia, nations sprang up mummifying the haunts of their colonial past and upliftment followed pursuit. Evidently, it is undeniable that power distribution allows for alleviation and vice versa. Thence, power sharing and distribution is found indifferent to prosperity, in general and can mean a speculation on prospects of a certain organisation, nation or an individual.

To have a general perception of power equality amongst the global populace, one can talk of geopolitics first-hand. A primer on the east-west divide? Or one on how some organisations disguise their dominionistic ambitions behind the cloaks of international harmony. Cloaks weaved off Dollars and Euros.

Geopolitical power has always rested within the one who was competent enough to trample geographical barriers in the pursuit of autonomy and security. Empowered nations empower their citizens and vice versa. Since late 80s and 90s, when the world order shifted course for the last time, the status of global power has been quite dormant. Democracies were established, alliances were formed, global trade links lubricated and some even had their perfidies laid bare before the world; perfidies to human kind, in general. Although terrorism propped up as an impasse in the way of stability, matters were shunted on the once-usual cold war front. Developing nations were on a stint of fast paced economic recovery elated by globalisation and a smooth global trade. After the coronavirus pandemic, the global order finds itself at crossroads. Situations were further stimulated by the war in Ukraine and the fall of Kabul in extremist hands. By and large, alliances are being put to test. While some of them strengthened, some approached failure. What appeared to be a more or less unipolar world has started to get challenged by the view of a rising China. Playing opportune moves, neutral nations rose above the status of mere spectators and found a hold of the steering wheel at powerful forums. Although such maneuvers loom large over anticipations about a geopolitical power parity, many entities out of Africa, central Asia and the pacific Islands of Oceania remain subjugated to vulnerability. Some strategic value, if at all, seems unfit to outweigh the resource scarcity such nations find themselves in.

Let’s have a general view of popular power parity. What would be a better way to look at it than politics itself. Politics is about how people handle power and interact with it. If we exclude some non-democracies where politics isn’t in the reach of the commons in the first place, most of the other governments seem to be following a certain trend. Parties with extremist ideologies are increasingly ascending democratic ladders and forming governments. Some term this as the ‘rise of a global right’ which, certainly, is a recurrent phenomenon is politics. Taking communism off the canvas of politics has had its own implications not only upon the parliaments around the world but also the type and quality of life all around. The conundrum around the capacity of unregulated or partially regulated capitalism to deliver is now limpid with evidence of its charisma in a number of successful economies. With capitalism comes another share set for power. They say, why governments when you can have billionaires!

It is the inherent nature of power that it follows the gradient of popular presence. This is where consociational politics come into play. Consociationalism refers to a system pertaining to an agreement based on cooperation between different, specifically antagonizing, social groups on the basis of shared power. Societies, divided deeply along ethnic, religious or linguistic lines need to ensure the representation of all groups in decision making at some points of their existence in order to preserve their collective sanctity. The pronounced vulnerability of the minority needs to be silenced. Mutual power sharing is one way to achieve this. The other one being tyranny of the majority; an intelligible bid for instability and unrest. Disseminating from the Balkan war and the breakup of Yugoslavia, which was lucidly a result of ethnic dissettlements, the world has seen a vast number of such conflicts getting sparked and settled in the current order. The Good Friday accords of Ireland in 1998, the Sri Lankan civil war, Israel-Palestine conflict, the Kurdish unrest in Iraq, Houthi protests in Yemen, Tigray conflict of Ethiopia, the Arab Spring and many more have a common cause of dissatisfied power mongers. All successful settlement of such conflicts has the tie of consociationalism binding them. This vague ideal has often led conflicts to the solutions of grand coalition governments with representatives from major social groups, proportional representation in the ratio of population, mutual vetoes and segmental autonomies (a great example of which are the personal laws enlisted in the Indian constitution).

From a wider perspective, it is the politics of security that barges in on the status quo and resuscitates dialogues over the platter of power. Standing at the point in history where the global order is at crossroads, it’s time that human kind opens questioning authority and power anew. And for this, men must understand power. Civic power arises out of brute force, wealth, laws, social norms, ideas and numbers. Power is never static. It is like water and flows as current in everyday life. Politics is the work of harnessing that flow. Policymaking is an effort to freeze and perpetuate the flow of power.  Power compounds; powerful begets more power and so does powerlessness. Aversion from the systems that tend to accumulate power and burning the effigy of authoritarianism bring down democracies into question through the success rates of movements, strikes, pressure groups or even individual efforts for justice and attrition. Finally, when it comes down to exercising power personally and getting more powerful in public life, literacy proves to be handy so that you can read and write power. To read power means to pay attention to texts of power ranging from workplace politics to governmental suppression. This also involves analysing the dynamics and setting strategies with frontal attack, indirection and even coalition or authority. Read so that you may write. To write requires believing in yourself as the author of change. As with any kind of writing, you learn to express yourself. Speak up in a voice that is authentic. Organise your ideas; then organise others. Practice consensus building. Practice conflict. As with writing, it’s all about practice. And when everything seems falling into place, mobilise, for even the muzzle of Kalashnikovs muffles in the roar of numbers.