Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Division of Batangas
San Juan East District
LAIYA NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
Laiya Ibabao, San Juan, Batangas
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Name of Student: _________________________________

Grade/Section: ___________________________________

POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE

MODULE 3
Week 3
Duration: 4 hours

LESSON 3:
Power

Prepared by:

JULIET J. SILANG
Subject Teacher

PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND GOVRNANCE I JULIET SILANG 1

CONTENT:
Power
1. Nature
2. Dimensions
3. Types
4. Consequences

CONTENT STANDARDS:
The learner demonstrates an understanding of politics and political science, governance, political ideologies,
power, states, nations, and globalization.

PERFORMANCE STANDARDS:
The learner shall be able to clearly identify a specific political phenomenon and how it can be studied.

MOST ESSENTIAL LEARNING COMPETENCIES (MELC):

Analyze the nature, dimensions/types, and consequences of power

OVERVIEW:
This Learning Module was prepared based on the Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELC) presented by
Department of Education. Included herein is a topic with corresponding tasks to be answered. These must be
accomplished and submitted on or before the deadline (to be announced).

Name: ___________________________________ Course Title: PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE

Grade/Strand/Section: ______________________ Date: _______________________
Module No. ___

START OF MODULE

LESSON 3: POWER
OBJECTIVES:
At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:
1. define power;
2. identify the nature, types, and consequences of power;
3. explain the nature, dimensions, types, and consequences of power; and
4. explain how power is exercised in different situations.

I.INTRODUCTION

A. What I Need To Know?

This lesson presents the definitions and aspects of power in

political
science. Not only will you be able to recognize power, but you will also be
responsible in using it to avoid abuse in its usage, as well as to give due
respect to other who have power over them.

PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND GOVRNANCE I JULIET SILANG 2

 B. What’s New?

“Knowledge will give you power, but character

respect.”
-Bruce Lee

One of the central concepts and issues of political science is power: Who wields
it?
How it is shared, checked, or monopolized? How can power and its consequences
be
controlled to gain benefits?

You may not know it but we may be affected by the play of power, in its political sense, in our everyday life. In the
same way, each of us wields power on other people, things, or situation.

II. DEVELOPMENT

A. What I know?
Answer the following:
1. What political ideology in your society (or in general) do you like most?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

2. In one sentence, describe that ideology.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Why do you like this certain ideology?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

4. What political ideology in your society (or in general) do you dislike?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Why do you not like this certain ideology? What aspect of this ideology do you dislike?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

B. What’s in?
Determine the situations where there is clear use of power as defined in political science. Check those
statements that present a clear use of power and put an X mark on those that do not present a clear use of
power.

______1. Your mother ask to buy flour in the bakery.

______2. Agnes tries to escape a building on fire by breaking the windows using her ukulele.

______3. The teacher asks the class to return immediately the classroom globe to its proper place.

______4. Protesters on the streets forced the police to direct traffic into an alternate route.

______5. The President made sure that his constituents were happy by giving away cash gifts and other goods
during Christmas.

PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND GOVRNANCE I JULIET SILANG 3

 ______6. The stage director decided to kick the lead actor out of the play after 72 retakes.

______7. The 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution displayed unity of the people in ousting a tyrant.

______8. You got into a heated argument after someone accidentally spilled coffee on your pants while you
were on a café.

C. What is it?

Power in the natural sciences can be easily established through a single equation,
which
signifies the quantifiable nature of physical power. Power in society, and by extension,
the social sciences, on the other hand, is more complicated because it is continuously
being molded by the dynamic nature of society and the objective and subjective
capacity
of man.

Dahl(1950) define power in society as the ability of person A or institution A to make person B or institution B to
do something that person B or institution B, on his/her its own, would not do. From said definition, power in society
spans a broad spectrum of meaning that includes force, authority, influence, and most of the time, coercion.

In addition, in society, there are different forms of power—from authoritative power to economic power. The
are also many ways in which power can be expressed by individuals or institutions. Likewise, expressing power may
range from the simplest of human interaction, such as when parents tell their children what they should and should not
do, to the grandest, such as when the government imposes policies for the welfare of its constituents.

The extent of the consequences of power is dependent upon the different ways, degree, and the aims by which
power is expressed in society. For instance political power in a state is exercised by the government. Through this
power, the government is able to create and enact laws that promote peace and order in society and influences various
processes such as those are affecting the economy for the benefit of its constituents as well.

In their attempt to classify and better understand power, Barnett and Duvall (Pallaver 2011) created the
taxonomy of power with four major types:

1. Compulsory power - the direct control of one actor of the conditions and actins another.

2. Institutional power - the indirect ways in which an actor affects another. An example is the use of rules or
the law to impose order.

3. Structural power - basically looks at the position and the roles of various actors in relation to each other.
Examples are coach to player; boss to worker or captain to crew relationships wherein the position of each
player toward another provides them roles and responsibilities that play even without coercing the other.

4. Productive power - similar to the structural power that looks in the relative position of the actors, the
social production of their roles, and how the roles affect the actors’ perceptions and actions. However,
productive power focus not on the direct structures provided and accepted by each actor, but on the
discourse between the actors in which power is negotiated.

According to Aristotle in his Politics, there are situations where power in the government is corrupted by the
personal and selfish goals of individuals. Because of these egoistic goals, individuals pursue laws and intervene with
PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND GOVRNANCE I JULIET SILANG 4
social services to achieve personal rather than communal gains. This is true throughout the history of man wherein
various individuals identified by Thomas Carlyle (1841) as “Great Men” of history, such as dictators and despots likes Pol
Pot and Adolf Hitler who used the power vested on them by their respective governments to pursue personal ambitions
over the welfare of their people.
In studying politics, we must be aware and accept the fact that power, as a central concept, is dynamic and has
different forms, depending on who is imposing power, and how that power is expressed.

III. ENGAGEMENT

A. What’s more?

Answer the following questions on the space provided.

1. If you were to quantify power in political science, what would your equation look like? Explain your answer.
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

2. How will you use the different types of power to affect the behavior of other people (e.g., your classmates
or group mates during debates, group projects, school programs)?
________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Power can corrupt individual. How can a person avoid being corrupted by power or abuse of power given to
him/her?
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

B. What I can do?

I. Give five instances where each of the types of power as discussed is expressed.
1.__________________________________________________________________________________________
2.__________________________________________________________________________________________
3.__________________________________________________________________________________________
4.__________________________________________________________________________________________
5.__________________________________________________________________________________________

II. In box 1, identify a person who has power over you; in box 2, a person whom you have power over. Describe
what would happen if one does not respect power or misuses it. Write your answer on the lines beside the
boxes.

1. ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

YOU
PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND GOVRNANCE I JULIET SILANG 5
 ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

C. What other enrichment activities can I engage in (additional activities)?

1. Make a proposal for a simple method of controlling or checking the power of the government to stop
corruption.

________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

2. Cite three things that made him a notable person in history and politics.

1. _______________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________

MAHATMA GANDHI

IV. ASSIMILATION
A. What I have learned?
Summarize what you have learned in this lesson in three to five sentences. Provide two or three sentences
for your opinion on the use of power.

PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND GOVRNANCE I JULIET SILANG 6

 B. What I can do (Assessment)?
Draw your answer in “What I can Do?” part and indicate each drawing with corresponding power manifested.
Do your illustration in each box provided.

2.
1.

3. 4.

5.

REFLECTION:
I understand that
______________________________________________
_____________________________________________.

I realize that
______________________________________________
______________________________________________.

NAME:________________________________________________

PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND GOVRNANCE I JULIET SILANG 7

 -END OF MODULE-

Reference:
Pawilen, R.A. 2017 and Pawilen, Reidan M. 2017. Philippine Politics and Governance (First Edition).
Sampaloc, Manila: Rex Bookstore, Inc.
www.google.com

PHILIPPINE POLITICS AND GOVRNANCE I JULIET SILANG 8