>>/49468/
I do not disagree on many points, even tend to agree, maybe I should just clear a couple of things.
I think I should start with the Theory of Power. It's something I put into words. Maybe some philosopher or political theorist wrote about this somewhere, I have not read that. I dunno if you are one of our regular with different flag, or lurker, or one time visitor, I wrote about this stuff on this board already.
So.
Power is the ability to make decisions. If I can decide what I do, I have power over myself. If I can decide what others do, I have power over them. If others can decide what I do, they have power over me. Power isn't weapons, money, or authority itself, but the ability to decide others' fate. There are three main ways to make others do stuff:
1. buy their actions (money);
2. force them to do it (weapons/strength, however you like to call it);
3. influence.
The last one is hard to express in a word, because it gathers many things. It could be the aforementioned authority, could be faith, belief, can be love, respect, or can be conning people to do things, changing their motivations, emotions, "implanting" a thought, etc. etc. This is potentially the strongest, and the highest level of the three.
Examples:
Let's say the mob want something from you. First they'll try to bribe you (can be directly with money, or trading favors). If you reject, they'll intimidate you (beat you up, break your windows, put a severed horse head into your bed). But the highest level would be on their behalf is initiating you into their organization, to follow the boss.
State works the same. The sovereignty comes from the people, they give up - by their own volition - some of their rights and give it to the state, so the state can manage the common affairs, can mediate between the members of the people. The power of the state doesn't come from the soldiers or the bankers, but the people who decide to obey so the state can do its job.