The Polis is the predecessor of the centrally-governed modern state. Therefore, it is crucial to begin any investigation into power with the most fundamental Platonic and Aristotelian forms of government: monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy. We will also explore Plato’s cycle of political systems beginning at a virtuous aristocracy and continuously degrading into timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and finally anarchy or tyranny.

Texts: Plato, Politeia; Aristotle, Politics

What is sovereignty and who is sovereign? Who decides over the state of emergency? What happens to power once it is no longer exerted over another person or group? These fundamental questions to the understanding of power were intensely studied by Bertrand de Jouvenel as well as Carl Schmitt.

We will learn about the historical, natural tendency of power to grow, regardless of revolutions and changes in the forms of sovereignty.

Texts: Bertrand de Jouvenel, On Power; Carl Schmitt, Political Theology

This section will explore the role of propaganda in shaping the unconscious fears and desires of a population. Edward Bernays regarded the controlled management of popular opinion as crucial for any democratic society. What happens when the system of propaganda keeps growing and invades the human self? Herein lies the uncanny prospect of unknown and faceless forces engulfing all of us in a web of control.

Texts: Edward Bernays, Propaganda

Here we investigate the techno-economic structures of power. Instead of focusing on formal political structures and particular people in positions of power, we will look at the impersonal forces of the technological system. The combination of Michel Foucault and Niklas Luhmann allows for a profound insight into the structural dynamics of power on a societal level, giving insights into various kinds of social systems.

Texts: Michel Foucault, Power; Niklas Luhmann, Political Theory in the Welfare State

The final section focuses on the fundamentals of technocracy as explained by Jacques Ellul. Ellul differentiates between the ephemeral spectacle of politics and the underlying absolute power of technics. Regardless of political ideologies, the machine keeps growing under the flag of science and progress. In this final part on technics and power, we reconcile the notions of sovereignty as well as systemic analyses.

Texts: Jacques Ellul, the Autonomy of Politics; William Domhoff, The Four Networks Theory of Power