(2021) - Power: A Radical View - Steven Lukes
Steven Lukes argues in his book Power: A Radical View that power operates on three levels, and the most consequential one is also the hardest to see. The first is winning open conflicts over decisions; the second is controlling which issues even reach the table for debate. But the third — what Lukes calls ideological power — works by shaping people's actual wishes and beliefs, so they come to want things that run against their own interests without anyone forcing them to. Lukes shows how the most complete form of power isn't the kind that beats opposition, but the kind that prevents opposition from forming in the first place. If the deepest form of power leaves no visible conflict behind at all, how would we recognize it operating on us right now?
A may exercise power over B by getting him to do what he does not want to do, in quick succession, but he may also exercise power over him by shaping or determining his very wants.