The ability to affect the behavior of others, even against resistance, is power. In politics, power operates through coercion, inducement, persuasion, and the shaping of preferences and agendas.

States organize power through institutions that claim legitimate authority. Within those institutions, power is distributed among offices, parties, interest groups, and informal networks. Measurable resources—force, money, information, numbers—translate into influence only when skillfully deployed and when others recognize or submit to them.

Power is never equally shared. Constitutions, elections, and rights aim to constrain and regularize it. When formal constraints fail, raw power determines outcomes. Analyzing who holds power, how it is exercised, and how it can be checked remains the central task of political inquiry.

• Capacity to influence or control behavior
• Operates through force, incentives, and ideas
• Organized and constrained by institutions
• Unequally distributed in every system