Power is all around us. Human, political power in some form or other is (at least broadly, and often narrowly) the main topic of newspapers, the evening news, and the cable networks on a day-in, day-out basis. When it is pushed out of the headlines and top-of-the-hour updates, the reason usually is the power of some natural event, such as a hurricane or earthquake. Power and power relationships govern much of our daily lives as well. We stop at red lights and at least slow down markedly at stop signs on our way to work, and when we get there we are subject to the power of a boss.
Yet power is a curiously elusive concept. It is difficult to define, as shown by the widely varying definitions of it given even by people who have thought a great deal about the subject, as Wrong and Bachrach and Baratz have. In some of its most important forms it has a nearly magical quality: You have power if people believe you have it; if they cease to believe, your power may well evaporate.
This is markedly the case with political power, even that associated with coercive force. Saddam Hussein recently discovered the elusiveness of coercive state power. His military, as best as we can tell, was not so much defeated by the American forces as it simply evaporated in their presence. Thousands or tens of thousands of Iraqi troops took off their uniforms and melted into the population -- often, apparently, after their officers deserted first. This is perhaps a somewhat specialized case, in that the Iraqi troops were faced with overwhelming military superiority, and would almost certainly have been defeated in any case. However, other desperately overmatched armies have fought back fiercely, sometimes with very disagreeable consequences for an enemy confident in its superiority. On the other hand, there have been numerous recent cases where armies melted away in a similar fashion even when faced by enemies who on paper they could easily...