A critical analysis of the concept of power: An interactionist revelation of its moral nature*

Abstract

*Originally printed in Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology 1990 18(2).

It is argued that power is best understood as a moral category rather than as a causal category for purposes of social analysis. Since the exercise of power implies the violation of preferences, it is a moral problem which requires the identification of a responsible party for remedy. If a social analysis does not make responsible actors and relevant moralities manifest, the analysis emasculates the fundamental moral resources available to the party over whom power is exercised. Concepts of power involving closed, substituted, simultaneous, and negotiated moral universes are examined from this
perspective.