Psychologists define power as “control over access to resources.” A person has power if they can determine whether you get a paycheck, or whether you can move into a certain neighborhood, or a join a certain organization. It is about access to material resources rather than about esteem or... regard that lives in the minds of people. Power is evolutionarily novel. In small-scale hunter-gatherer societies, no single human gets to control access to resources. But in the modern era, humans now have the ability to stockpile resources, command large militaries, win the favor of large numbers of allies, and use organized force. Power necessarily entails violence or the threat of violence. If someone tried to control access to critical resources without the backing of violence, others would simply take what they have. The communist dictator Mao Zedong famously said that “Power grows from the barrel of a gun.” Olympic athletes have high status; they are prestigious and generally well-regarded. But they don’t control access to resources. They don’t have power. Nightclub bouncers and doormen don't necessarily have high-status, but they do have power; they control access to who goes in and out of nightclubs.show more

Rob Henderson

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