Synthèse Lieux et formes de pouvoir

Bekhira Sofien TG7

The notion of “Locations and forms of power”

I’m talking about the notion: “locations and forms of power”. In politics and social science, power is the ability to influence people's behaviour. In order to live together members of a community accept rules, regulations, laws. This helps to create social cohesion but can also lead to conflicts and tensions. Even when authority seems absolute, there are always counter-powers which question it, aim at limiting its excesses and resist it. There are 4 sorts of power: Political power, Economical power, Cultural power and the power of the press. So, I’m going to solve the question: What can people do to fight against abuse of power?

First of all, I’m going to talk about one thing what people can do to fight against abuse of power. They can attack directly the source of this excess of power. This is exactly what Emma Gonzalez do when she challenged Donald Trump and the powerful lobby, the NRA with her famous speech, “Shame on you” Emma Gonzalez is student in a High School, in Florida. She survived the mass shooting which killed 17 students. In her speech, she violently defied president Donald Trump and the NRA, the main lobby of weapons in the USA. So, people can act in this way to fight against abuse of power.

Secondly, we will see that people don’t need to speak for fighting the abuse of power. Indeed, we see in class an Awareness campaign in our book which fighting against the power of guns in the USA. This campaign is in form of a poster. At the top, we can read statistics of the number of victims killed every year in different countries. The target is the Americans because they love guns and the second amendment as the Bill of Rights allows then to bear a weapon. The goal of this poster is to make people aware of the high number of deaths caused by guns and encourage them stop using weapons.

Thirdly, we will see that it is possible that a form of power can fight another form of power. The best example for that is the Watergate Scandal which we see the media attack an American president (here, Richard Nixon). The Watergate scandal was a is a matter of political espionage which charged the ex-president of the USA, Richard Nixon. The persons who have allowed to show this case up are journalists. 2 person who are in the Press Power allowed to put at resignation a member of the Political Power, the president of the USA.

In conclusion, people or group of people who abuse of power can be counter by different way. They can be counter by speech, campaign, boycott or by a group of person or lobby like people or lobby who abuse.

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