Grand Strategy Under Nonpolarity

The random and indeterminate nature of the current nonpolar world suggests a condition of increasing entropy. Relative capability advantages in today’s system do not translate as easily as they once did into power and influence over others. Unlike past multipolar and bipolar systems, the current system exerts only weak, if any, systemic constraints on actors. Thus, polarity has become a largely meaningless concept. Instead, we see an increase in the number and kinds of actors that can affect the system’s outcomes. In addition, complex process variables at the systemic and micro levels—especially those related to globalization and the digital revolution—are fundamentally reshaping the current and future dynamics of world politics. The key to grand strategy in this “hybrid world” of many types of actors wielding various kinds of power will be, first, for states to recognize the limits of traditional power bases and, second, to identify and cooperate with private actors that possess issue-specific resources, expertise, and influence with respect to the task at hand. That said, it is a complex and unpredictable world, not well-suited to the linear thinking associated with grand strategy.

Audit committee oversight of external audit: an examination of structural power and behavioural tactics

PurposeThis study aims to examine the structural power wielded by the audit committee (AC) and the various bases of its power, whilst also exploring the behavioural tactics used by the AC to leverage its power in the oversight of the external audit. Design/methodology/approachEmpirical evidence was drawn from semi-structured interviews with external auditors and AC members in Malaysia. FindingsThe AC’s structural power is derived from its formal and network position in the organisation. The AC possesses three forms of organisational-based power (legitimate, coercive and informational) resultant from its formal position, and these combine with the AC’s personal power (will and expert). The AC uses its personal power base to develop trusting relationships and to promote the exchange of information with other key corporate governance actors in the network position. Furthermore, the AC applies at least four behavioural tactics (assertiveness, ingratiation, rationality and coalition formation) to exercise its bases of power. Originality/valueThis study attempts to describe the AC’s structural sources of power, its organisational and personal power bases, and the behavioural tactics it uses when exerting its power.

Conclusion: Female Leaders Using Coercive Power Motivate Subordinates

This manuscript advances prior research (Blau, 1964; Elangovan & Xie, 1999; French & Raven, 1959; Goodstadt & Hjelle, 1973; Hegtvedt, 1988; Randolph & Kemery, 2011; Zigarmi, Peyton Roberts, & Randolph, 2015) and capitalizes on supervisory skills using power dynamics within the workplace, by investigating employee effort resulting from gender dissimilar supervisor-employee dyads and employee locus of control. To offer a more focused approach, this is an evaluation specifically on reward and coercive power derived from French and Raven’s (1959) five power bases. This manuscript proposes that the motivation levels of employees change, based on their locus of control and gender. There were 155 full-time professionals surveyed, this study concluded a positive relationship between the use of reward power and employee effort. Notably, the supplemental analysis indicated a positive relationship between female supervisors who exhibited coercive power and greater employee effort.

YPAR Dreams Deferred? Examining Power Bases for YPAR to Impact Policy and Practice

Practitioners and scholars have argued that youth participatory action research (YPAR) challenges systemic injustice in education, as youth and adults research mechanisms of oppression and propose recommendations. However, oftentimes YPAR does not lead to new policies, as institutional decision-makers ignore youth’s moral pleas and empirical evidence. In this conceptual article, we propose a consideration of the ways in which YPAR can mobilize power bases using youth organizing and institutionally sanctioned decision-making. We argue that being attuned to power bases provides YPAR groups a more reliable means, in comparison to moral pleas, to move from YPAR findings to shifts in policy and practice.

The End Comes to Byzantium

This chapter examines how the Byzantine Empire crested and began to fade under the rule of Basil II. When Byzantium lost wars, the emperor had to find some other way to pay for military and governmental expenses. Basil's innovation was to give the nobles tax relief rather than direct payment. He also got them to fight “for free” by letting them take land from smaller peasants. Increasing the size of nobles' estates increased the power of regional aristocrats. This gave them independent power bases, which increased their capacity to hold back resources from future wars — or to try to take over the empire for themselves. Civil wars and regional uprisings flourished. A particularly nasty civil war between 1341 and 1354 gutted Byzantium's military strength and led to gains by the Serbs, the Venetians, and the Genoese. While Constantinople did not disappear entirely, Byzantium did. Byzantium went from being a center of power, wealth, and culture to being a subordinate outpost of an Atlantic economy.

The First East Asian Empires

In 221 BCE the Qin state created the first unitary empire in continental East Asia. Although it innovated in exalting the title and status of the ruler, its continuation of the institutions of the Warring States led to policies that provoked rebellion and ultimately collapse. The subsequent Han dynasty introduced the changes that underlay all future East Asian empires: elaboration of the role of the emperor as supreme ruler and high priest; abandonment of universal military service; incorporation of nomadic peoples into the Han state order (primarily through military service); proclaiming the role of the state as chief patron of a textually defined cultural ecumene; and development of a new elite, combining aspirations to state service with local power bases created through land ownership, market-oriented agriculture, small-scale craft production, moneylending, and social networks fashioned through charity to and domination of poorer neighbors.

Commitment, Dominance, and Mate Value: Power Bases in Long-Term Heterosexual Couples

We assessed the relative contribution of economic, personal, and affective power bases to perceived relationship power. Based on evolutionary studies, we predicted that personality dominance and mate value should represent alternative personal power bases. Our sample was comprised of 84 Czech heterosexual couples. We measured the economic power base using self-report scales assessing education, income and work status. Personal power bases were assessed using self-report measures of personality dominance (International Personality Item Pool Dominance and Assertiveness subscale from NEO Personality Inventory-Revised Extraversion scale), and partner-report measures of mate value (Trait-Specific Dependence Inventory, factors 2–6). The first factor of Trait-Specific Dependence Inventory, which measures agreeableness/commitment was used to assess the affective power base. Our results show that perceived relationship power is associated with a perception of partner’s high agreeableness/commitment. Moreover, women’s personality dominance and mate value are also linked with perceived relationship power, which supports our evolutionary prediction of dominance and mate value working as power bases for women. The stronger effect of women’s than men’s power bases may be due to gender differences in investment into relationships and/or due to transition to more equal relationships currently sought by women in the Czech Republic.