Sources of Power in One's Life - Essay Example

Many a time, I have expended collaborative power to carry out teamwork with my peers and classmates. Transcendent sources of power have also proved very useful to me, in the form of parental support.    

            I have seen many leaders of impeccable personalities use different sources of power. Particularly, I know both Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson used personal, collaborative, institutional, positional, ideological, and transcendent powers, among others.  For instance, Lincoln and Wilson used personal and positional power to end the use of slave labor and the unlawful hegemonic state aggression that had precipitated World War I, respectively.

            According to Tamanaha, collaborative sources of power were used by Lincoln rallying the Republicans to vote against the use of slave labor which was rampant among Southern states. Both Lincoln and Wilson heavily relied on transcendental sources of power, as they were Separate Baptist and Presbyterian, respectively. Ideological sources of power proved very useful for their quest for social justice since Wilson believed in mutual respect among states as international players while Lincoln believed in the abolition of slavery as being crucial to America’s full emancipation (775).   

            Alongside the ones I am currently using, the sources of power I expect to use in the future are ideological, expert, institutional, and positional power. This is because, by the time I get into employment, I will have become ideologically mature, and have immense expertise and positional power needed to muzzle through positive socioeconomic changes into fruition.  

Conclusion

            These forces are not at all coercive, but cooperative. In them, there is no use of instruments of coercion to effect change. Instead, all of them heavily rely on the art of persuasion and teamwork, to succeed.