Relationship of Power and Politics
Ramlan Surbakti in his book entitled Understanding Political Science, states that power is a concept related to behavior. Power is seen as a symptom that is always present in the political process.
In the political science dictionary there are several concepts related to power (power), such as influence (influence), persuasion (persuasion), force (strength), coercion (violence) and so forth.
Influence is the ability to influence others to change their attitudes and behavior voluntarily. Persuasion is the ability to convince others with an argument to do something. Force is the use of physical pressure, such as limiting freedom, causing pain or limiting the fulfillment of the biological needs of others to do something.
The definition of coercion is a demonstration of power or threats and coercion carried out by a person or group of other parties in order to behave and behave in accordance with the wishes of the owner of power.
From the above concept, political power can be formulated as the ability to use sources of influence to influence the process of making and implementing political decisions so that decisions benefit themselves, their groups or society in general.
If someone, an organization, or a political party can organize so that various relevant state bodies for example make rules that prohibit or require a thing or case, then they have political power.
A close variation of political power is authority (authority), the ability to make others do things on the basis of the law or the mandate obtained from a power.
A policeman who can stop a car on the road does not mean he has power, but he has the authority he obtained from the Traffic Law. Thus, if a holder of authority carries out his authority not in accordance with the mandate of the rules that he runs, then he has abused his authority, and for that he can be prosecuted and subject to sanctions.
The desire to have power is a natural state of humanity, exactly as intended by Sartre and Nietsche. For Sartre, basic human needs are considered important and valued. As for Nietsche, humans are basically always driven by the desire to become supermen, powerful humans. In the context of political position, it may be this natural human desire that drives a person to pursue political power.
According to Lord Acton, power tends to corrupt and absolute power is certainly corrupt. It is already known to many people, especially those who pay attention to the practice of power or politics, both in government, corporations, and social organizations. On the other hand, because politics tries to manage and control the affairs of society, politics can also be used as a means to convey goodness and truth to the wider community .
However, the opposite happened. People who went through the political process at the same time were given the mandate to work for the people instead became the first people to betray the mandate, by putting forward their own personal and group interests above those of the people.
So, it is actually the people who work in the political orbit, and not politics itself, who have made the stigma and label that politics is always oriented to power.
Examples of Power
For example the President, he made a law (the subject of power) but must also be subject to the law (the object of power).