PSYCHOLOGY OF POLITICAL POWER

Abstract

The concept of power and methodological approaches to its study are revealed. Political power is defined as the ability and possibility to exercise sufficient influence on political activity and political behavior of people and their associations by any means – will, authority, law, violence, central, organizational and regulatory principles of politics. The psychological features of political power include: the ability and willingness of the subject of power to reveal his political will; supremacy of power, compulsory implementation of its decisions; coverage of the entire political space with the powerful actions; the presence of political structures through which the subject of power carries out political activity; comprehension of political interest and political needs; monocentricity of power (existence of a unified decision-making center); possession and use of the complex of necessary resources. In the psychology of political power its main forms of expression are taken into account: force, persuasion or persuading, powers, coercion, manipulation, authority, etc. The following political and psychological factors that influence the perception of political power are distinguished: political system and its character, communicative factors, situational factors of perception and assessment of power, social and psychological characteristics of the subjects of interaction between power and citizen. The possibilities of relations of «domination-subordination» with respect to the influence on human behavior are analyzed. The sources of political power are revealed, such as: remuneration power, coercive power, power of the standard, expert power, information power, normative power, power of ties. The notion of the motive of power as a psychological need which defines the aspiration for power, dominance of influence, the feeling of its superiority is defined. The resources of political power, which have both socio-political character and purely psychological nature, are revealed.