A Theoretical Framework of Benign Power in School Sector Decision Making: A preface

Abstract

Benign power goes beyond the more traditional, theoretical frameworks of conflictual power advanced by Dahl (1961, Who Governs?, London, Yale University Press), Bachrach and Baratz (1970, Power and Poverty, New York, Oxford University Press) and Lukes (1974, Power, Basingstoke, Macmillan), where in these cases, power is exercised over another to serve individual ends. It is this focus on serving individual ends at the expense of another which has branded these studies' negative (or malign) definitions of power. But why should conflictual power be seen as negative? Power is regarded as benign when it is exercised in discordant relationships between persons to serve either altruistic and/or collective ends and in which the social and political values of democracy, political freedom and social justice are paramount. This paper is devoted to discussion of the theoretical framework of benign power.