Mechanics of power

Political power -- meaning power over other people, not necessarily exercised via government or any legitimate authority -- is at the heart of pretty much every social or large-scale problem on Earth today, yet as far as we are aware there has been no formal study of how it works.

There seem to be a lot of popular misconceptions about how power is created and maintained. Some s, for instance, express a set of beliefs that seem to imbue government with an exclusive or near-exclusive ability to create power:
 * Without government, political power derives solely from reputation.
 * Most coercion originates from government.
 * Government has a monopoly on force.
 * A society without government would not have extreme wealth or power inequality.
 * In a society without government, any entity that acted malevolently would become unprofitable and thereby disempowered.

More obviously, many evangelicals believe that political power derives ultimately from the wishes of a mythical, super-powerful being -- or who use popular belief in this being (which they encourage) to coerce others.

Neither of these is true -- although the evangelical leaders at least seem to have a fairly clear (if not necessarily articulate) understanding of a handful of powerful methods for creating and maintaining power.

The basic question we are trying to answer here is: how does power work?

Is there some core element to it, or is it just a collection of methodologies to be used opportunistically? If the latter, then a catalog of those methodologies and some documentation of their usage would seem to be in order. If the former, then a better understanding of how each methodology is related to the core would also seem to be in order.

Questions

 * Why do people seek power?
 * Why hasn't more been written about this?
 * What are some historical examples of power-creation?
 * What are some modern examples of power-creation?

Links

 * 2014-10-23 The Police Are Still Out of Control (h/t) by Frank Serpico
 * powermongers are righteously indignant when their harmful activities are exposed and/or stopped
 * "If it wasn’t for that fuckin' Serpico, I coulda been a millionaire today."
 * some may take retribution against whistleblowers
 * others may socially ostracize whistleblowers, even if this allows the whistleblower to come to harm
 * "If I knew it was him, I would have left him there to bleed to death."
 * tentatively: a powermonger may have supporters who have not done an independent ethical evaluation and are simply being loyal to their "friend" (the powermonger)
 * "the Narcotics division was rotten to the core, with many guys taking money from the very drug dealers they were supposed to bust."
 * piracy is more profitable than production
 * cutting funding for legitimate activities increases the incentive for illegitimate activities
 * in-group loyalty can be exploited to protect the corrupt

books

 *  (1983): abridged text
 *  (1513): full text