power structure

Who controls whom

A power structure is the hierarchy of authority and influence within an organization, institution, or society—who has control, who reports to whom, and how decisions get made.

The term often carries critical undertones, implying entrenched interests resistant to change: The protesters aimed to dismantle the existing power structure.

It can describe formal arrangements or informal networks of influence that operate behind official channels.

institutional

government

Authority over a state

judiciary · parliament · cabinet · board · committee · administration · regime · establishment · ruling class · deep state

hierarchy

pecking order

Social dominance arrangement

echelons · dominance · authority · bureaucracy · oligarchy · patriarchy · matriarchy · feudalism · caste · class

Categories
Opposites
hierarchy vs. equality

power structureegalitarianism

Philosophy of universal equality

equality · classless society · collective · commune · leaderlessness

order vs. disorder

power structureanarchy

Disorder from absent authority

power vacuum · chaos · disorder · lawlessness · failed state

institutional vs. grassroots

power structuregrassroots movement

Citizen-led collective action campaign

popular sovereignty · direct democracy · participatory democracy · popular uprising · mass movement

Family

power, powerful, structure, empower, powerless, powers, structured, powerfully, structural

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Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Rated G