Measuring Empowermentat Local and Community Levels

Ryukoku University, Kyoto

Norman Uphoff, Cornell UniversityJuly 23, 2005

The Key Concept is POWER

• Need to understand and be clear about Power in order to understand/promote empowement

• Big problem: “power” does not really exist – it is an artifact of language, verbal shorthand

• The consequences of what the word Power refers to do exist and are meaningful– Biblical expression applies: “by its fruits ye shall know it”

• But that is not much help for rigorous analysis• Need to know what power is to confer or enhance it

This presents ontological challenge

• What is ontology? The study/science/logic of reality – What is real? – What exists?

We should seek rigorous/disciplines answers• Two fallacies have been identified by the great British

philosopher, Lord Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)

– The fallacy of ‘misplaced concreteness,’ e.g., GNP

– The ‘pathetic fallacy’ – attributing thinking, emotion, action to inanimate (non-living) things – big but common mistake

Most influential thinking on Power

• German social scientist Max Weber (1864-

1920) wrote extensively and clearly on this subject

• Power is: (a) the probability that (b) someone in a social relationship will (c ) be able to achieve his/her will, (d) despite resistance, (e) regardless of the bases (power means) on which that probability rests

• Power = probability (ex ante), not a thing

Some implications of this understanding

• Power cannot be possessed – one can possess only the means of power, i.e., the bases of power

• Power is a matter of degree and is never certain (possibility of ‘perverse power’)

• 2-person power relationships very different and much simpler than are actual real-world n-person power relationships

• Power depends basically upon objectives

Some implications of this understanding

• Power can be both absolute and relative

• Power can be zero-sum and positive-sum

• Power over... is different from power to…

• Paradox of decentralization: does devolving power to local government diminish the power of the central government?

– Only if central government does not want for local residents what they want for themselves

Power is a useful concept, even if mental fiction

How to ‘Get Real’ about Power?

• By focusing on power resources and on how they are used – also on consequences

• Set of six power resources (Ilchman and Uphoff, The Political Economy of Change, University of California Press, 1969; Transaction Books, 1998)

– Economic resources: land, labor, capital [money]

– Social status: esteem, deference [prestige]

– Information

– Force: coercion (with legitimate), violence (without)

– Legitimacy: belief an action/decision is right/proper

– Authority: claim to right to speak ‘in name of the state’

How to ‘Get Real’ about Power?

• How these power resources are used – how effectively, consistently, creatively – is as important as the resources themselves

– Resources x use = power (achieving one’s will)

– If either term = 0, power = 0

• Reputation for power enhances power – increases the probability that one can achieve one’s will

• Power resources ≠ power results – many reasons• Empowerment requires both resources and

capabilities, plus favorable processes and context

Table 10.1:

Analytical Framework for Measurement and Promotion of

Empowerment of the Poor

Direct FocusesAssets Capabilities

Individual and household levels

Power resources:Economic (wealth)Social (status)Political (authority)Informational (knowledge)

Moral (legitimacy)Physical (force)

Individual traits:Personal skillsInterpersonal skillsExperienceConfidenceAspirationEnergy/persistence

Group/Collective LevelsPower resources:EconomicSocialPoliticalInformationalMoralPhysical

Organizational capabilities:For collective action,including self-help

Shared skills:Experience, confidence, aspiration, etc.

Indirect FocusesProcesses Context

Institutional/societal levelsInstitutions, roles:• Democratic institutions and processes, e.g. election of representatives by majority rather than proportional representation• Established rights, e.g. free speech• Access to media• Fairness of legal system, police, and courts• Permeability of decision processes to claims of poor actors, a result of the above factors plus CONTEXT →

Norms, values, beliefs, etc.:• Power distribution among nonpoor actors (sources of resistance)• Cultural barriers, e.g. patriarchy, discrimination• Capability of state institutions, e.g. effectiveness• Social structure, e.g. mobility, segmentation of the poor• Social norms of participation, equity, etc.

Table 10.2:

Opportunities for Promoting and Measuring Empowerment

of the Poor

Interventions for PromotionAssets Capabilities Processes Context

• Investments and policies to increase the power resource endowments of poor persons and households

• Training for poor persons

• Catalytic efforts to strengthen or establish organization among the poor

• Policy reforms

• Institutional changes and reforms

• Actions that reinforce positive influences that enhance power of poor actors• Actions that counter negative influences that diminish the power of poor

Focuses for MeasurementAssets Capabilities Processes Context• Tools for measuring the various power resources of the poor

• Comparative studies of the effects of ceteris paribus changes in the power resource endowments of the poor on their ability to achieve their objectives

• Evaluations of training strategies and methods for empowering the poor

• Evaluations of methods for enhancing organizational capacities of the poor

• Comparative studies of the effects of changes in organizational and personal capacities of the poor

• Case studies with appropriate quantification of how certain policies or institutions—and changes in these— can affect the empowerment of the poor, including effects of assets, capabilities, and processes.

• Case studies to assess how significant are various contextual factors that affect the power of the poor, and what effects certain changes in these contextual factors have on assets, capabilities, and processes

Importance of Subjective Factors

• In effort to be more rigorous about power and empowerment, and to be focusing on ‘real’ things, should not forget that subjective factors (ideas, norms, values, etc.) are also part of ‘reality’ – have ontological status

• Consideration of ‘cognitive’ vs. ‘structural’ aspects of ‘social capital’ -- norms, values, attitudes and beliefs vs. roles, rules, precedents and procedures -- EXAMPLE