Power: A Radical View

From the Back Cover\n‘In this age of conspiracy mongering, the new edition of Steven Lukes's Power is doubly welcome. It gives us a brilliantly tough-minded and realistic account of how power operates both when it is visible and when it isn't.’ – Professor Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, US\n‘When first published, Steven Lukes’s classic “radical view” of power set the stage for any further critical debate about that concept. But now, with another expanded edition, we learn a new meaning of “radical”: rethinking one’s own theory from the ground up, in a truly dialogical way. Could a masterpiece ever be perfected? Yes, it can.’ – Professor Rainer Forst, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
The concept of power is central to social and political science. This third edition of a classic work assesses the main debates around how to conceptualize and study this difficult topic. Including the original 1974 text, updates and reflections from the second edition and two groundbreaking new chapters, Power: A Radical View poses urgent and influential arguments about how power over willing subjects is secured and maintained.\nWith a brand new introduction, this third edition advances a major development of Lukes’s three-dimensional view of power and presents empirical cases to support this. It brings a book that has consolidated its reputation as a major reference point within social and political theory to a whole new audience and is essential reading for all undergraduates and postgraduate students of Politics and Sociology.\nSteven Lukes is Professor of Sociology at New York University, USA. He was previously a Fellow and Tutor in Politics and Sociology at Balliol College, Oxford, U.K. and has held professorships at the European University Institute, Florence and the University of Siena, Italy and the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.\nThe third edition of this seminal work includes the original text, first published in 1974, the updates and reflections from the second edition and two groundbreaking new chapters. Power: A Radical View assesses the main debates about how to conceptualize and study power, including the influential contributions of Michel Foucault. The new material includes a development of Lukes's theory of power and presents empirical cases to exemplify this.\nIncluding a refreshed introduction, this third edition brings a book that has consolidated its reputation as a classic work and a major reference point within Social and Political Theory to a whole new audience. It can be used on modules across the Social and Political Sciences dealing with the concept of power and its manifestation in the world. It is also essential reading for all undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in the history of Social and Political Thought.\nNew to this Edition:
- A revised and refreshed introduction
- Two new chapters on 'Domination and Consent' and 'Exploring the Third Dimension'