Authors: Moises Naim
The End of Power
THE END OF
POWER
FROM BOARDROOMS
TO BATTLEFIELDS
AND CHURCHES
TO STATES,
WHY BEING
IN CHARGE
ISN'T WHAT IT
USED TO BE
MOISÃS NAÃM
BASIC BOOKS
A MEMBER OF THE PERSEUS BOOKS GROUP
New York
Copyright © 2013 by Moisés NaÃm
Published by Basic Books,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 250 West 57th Street, 15th floor, New York, NY 10107.
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Designed by Trish Wilkinson
Set in 11.5 point Minion Pro
Library of Congress CatalogingâinâPublication Data
NaÃm, Moisés.
The end of power: from boardrooms to battlefields and churches to states, why being in charge isn't what it used to be / Moisés NaÃm.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-0-465-03156-6 (hardcover: alk. paper)âISBN: 978-0-465-03781-0 (e-book)
1. Power (Social sciences) 2. Organization. I. Title.
HN49.P6N35 2013
303.3âdc23
2012049642
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Susana, Adriana, Claudia, Andres, Jonathan, and Andrew
ONTENTS
Preface: How This Book Came About
Have You Heard of James Black Jr.?
From the Chess Board . . . to Everything Around Us
The Decay of Power: Is It New? Is It True? So What?
The Decay of Power: What's at Stake?
M
AKING
S
ENSE OF
P
OWER
: H
OW
I
T
W
ORKS AND
H
OW TO
K
EEP
I
T
Why Power Shiftsâor Stays Steady
The Importance of Barriers to Power
The Blueprint: Explaining Market Power
Barriers to Entry: A Key to Market Power
From Barriers to Entry to Barriers to Power
H
OW
P
OWER
G
OT
B
IG
: A
N
A
SSUMPTION
'
S
U
NQUESTIONED
R
ISE
Max Weber, or Why Size Made Sense
H
OW
P
OWER
L
OST
I
TS
E
DGE
: T
HE
M
ORE
, M
OBILITY
,
AND
M
ENTALITY
R
EVOLUTIONS
The
More
Revolution: Overwhelming the Means of Control
The
Mobility
Revolution: The End of Captive Audiences
The
Mentality
Revolution: Taking Nothing for Granted Anymore
Revolutionary Consequences: Undermining the Barriers to Power
Barriers Down: The Opportunity for Micropowers
W
HY
A
RE
L
ANDSLIDES
, M
AJORITIES
,
AND
M
ANDATES
E
NDANGERED
S
PECIES
? T
HE
D
ECAY OF
P
OWER IN
N
ATIONAL
P
OLITICS
From Empires to States: The More Revolution and the Proliferation of Countries
P
ENTAGONS
V
ERSUS
P
IRATES
: T
HE
D
ECAYING
P
OWER OF
L
ARGE
A
RMIES
The End of the Ultimate Monopoly: The Use of Violence
The Decay of Power and the New Rules of War
W
HOSE
W
ORLD
W
ILL
I
T
B
E
? V
ETOES
, R
ESISTANCE
,
AND
L
EAKS
â
OR
W
HY
G
EOPOLITICS
I
S
T
URNING
U
PSIDE
D
OWN
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Traditional Power at Bay
From Ambassadors to Gongos: The New Emissaries
B
USINESS AS
U
NUSUAL
: C
ORPORATE
D
OMINANCE
U
NDER
S
IEGE
In the Land of Bosses, Authority, and Hierarchy
What Is Globalization Doing to Business Concentration?
Market Power: The Antidote to Business Insecurity
Barriers Are Down, Competition Is Up
New Entrants and New Opportunities
H
YPER
-C
OMPETITION FOR
Y
OUR
S
OUL
, H
EART
,
AND
B
RAIN
Religion: The Nine Billion Names of God
Labor: New Unions and Nonunions
Philanthropy: Putting the Bono in Pro Bono
Media: Everyone Reports, Everyone Decides
T
HE
D
ECAY OF
P
OWER
: I
S THE
G
LASS
H
ALF
-F
ULL OR
H
ALF
-E
MPTY
?
Celebrating the Decay of Power
What's Not to Like? The Dangers of Decay
Political Paralysis as Collateral Damage of the Decay of Power
Be Careful What You Wish For: Overdosing on Checks and Balances
P
OWER
I
S
D
ECAYING
: S
O
W
HAT
? W
HAT TO
D
O
?
Make Life Harder for the “Terrible Simplifiers”
Strengthen Political Parties: The Lessons from Occupy Wall Street and Al Qaeda
Increase Political Participation
The Coming Surge of Political Innovations
Appendix: Democracy and Political Power
REFACE
How This Book Came About: A Personal Note
POWER MAY FEEL ABSTRACT, BUT FOR THOSE WHO ARE MOST ATTUNED TO
itânamely, the powerful themselvesâits flow and ebb can have a visceral edge. After all, those in positions of great power are best positioned to spot limits on their effectiveness and to feel frustration over the gap between the power they expect their rank to convey and the power they actually have. In my own small way, I experienced such constraints back in February 1989. At the time I had been named, at age thirty-six, the minister of development in the then-democratic government of my home country, Venezuela. Soon after we took office in a landslide election victory, we faced riots in Caracasâtriggered by the anxiety over our plans to cut subsidies and raise fuel pricesâthat paralyzed the city with violence, fear, and chaos. Suddenly, and despite our victory and apparent mandate, the economic reform program that we had championed acquired a very different meaning. Instead of symbolizing hope and prosperity, it was now seen as the source of street violence, increased poverty, and deeper inequality.
But the most profound insight I had at that time was one I would not
fully comprehend until years later. It dwelt in the enormous gap between the perception and the reality of my power. In principle, as one of the main economic ministers, I wielded tremendous power. But in practice, I had only a limited ability to deploy resources, to mobilize individuals and organizations, and, more generally, to make things happen. My colleagues and even the president had the same feeling, though we were loath to acknowledge that our government was a hobbled giant. I was tempted to chalk this up to Venezuela itself: surely our sense of powerlessness had to do with our
country's notoriously weak and malfunctioning institutions. Such weakness could not be universal.
Yet later I would appreciate that it was universal indeed, or nearly so, among those with the experience of power. Fernando Henrique Cardosoâthe respected former president of Brazil and founding father of that country's successâsummed it up for me. “I was always surprised at how powerful people thought I was,” he told me when I interviewed him for this book. “Even well-informed, politically sophisticated individuals would come to my office and ask me to do things that showed they assumed I had far more power than I really did. I always thought to myself, if only they knew how limited the power of any president is nowadays. When I meet with other heads of state, we often share very similar recollections in this respect. The gap between our real power and what people expect from us is the source of the most difficult pressure any head of state has to manage.”