One of the oldest insights of sociologists of religion is that religions and national governments are drawn to each other. Nevertheless, the kind of power necessary for governments of nations is the ...

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) raised some eyebrows while attending the United Nations Climate Summit in Paris, proclaiming the "coercive power of the central state" is needed to promote good public ...

In the recent distressing case in Ireland in which a man abandoned his two-year-old daughter on the road at night to punish her mother, one point struck me as very telling, apart from the sheer ...

In 1959, social psychologists John French and Bertram Raven studied power, classifying five kinds: legitimate, reward, coercive, expert and referent. These power bases still figure prominently in ...

In Paris, Gov. Jerry Brown gave every indication that government will continue to force businesses to respond in certain ways. He called it using the “coercive power” of the state to do good—his ...

President Theodore Roosevelt addresses officers and crewmen of the USS Connecticut upon her return from the Atlantic Fleet’s cruise around the world, February 1909 (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Cmdr.

People who indicate they follow no religion (the nones) have been increasing. A lot of people in formerly majority Christian nations do not participate in a religious organization. I believe ...

Organizations are made up of individuals that exercise greater or lesser degrees of power. Sometimes, authority stems from a person's title in the organization, or from specialized knowledge and ...

Ambitious employees and aspiring leaders often ask me “How do I develop power?” and “Where does power come from?” Back in the late 1950s, psychologists John R. P. French and Bertram Raven identified ...