[Why Study Power? The Question of Subject]
p.778,780 Do we need a theory of power? ...in order to understand
what power relations are about, perhaps we should investigate the forms of resistance and attempts made to dissociate
these relations.
[How is Power Exercised?]
p.788 The exercise of power is not simply a relationship
between partners, individual or collective; it is a way in which certain actions modify others... Power exists only
when it is put into action, even if, of course, it is integrated into a disparate field of possibilities brought
to bear upon permanent structures.
p.789 In effect, what defines a relationship of power is that it
is a mode of action which does not act directly and immediately on others. Instead, it acts upon their actions: an action
upon an action, on existing actions or on those which may arise in the present or the future. A relationship
of violence acts upon a body or upon things; it forces, it bends, it breaks on the wheel, it destroys, or it closes
the door on all possibilities. Its opposite pole can only be passivity, and if it comes up against any resistance, it has
no other option but to try to minimize it.
p.791-792 Let us come back to the definition of the exercise of power as
a way in which certain actions may structure the field of other possible actions. What, therefore, would be proper to a relationship
of power is that it be a mode of action upon actions... to live in society is to live in such a way that action upon other
actions is possible-and in fact ongoing... I would say that the analysis, elaboration, and bringing into question of power
relations and the "agonism" between power relations and the intransitivity of freedom is a permanent political task inherent
in all social existence.
