RUSSELLS POWER

In his account of power, Bertrand Russell combines a perverse psycholo gical thesis about a will to power for its own sake with an acute perc eption of different forms power takes. The psychology is that of the m ost brutal leaders of the 1930s, when Russell wrote. His account focus es on the power of a political leader to compel a following as Hitler, Stalin, and others did. But the strength of his account is its analys is of three distinct forms of power: one grounded in resources, such a s weapons, and the others grounded in the coordination of large number s of people, either by the force of ideas or by the force of instituti onal arrangements. In his sharpest arguments, Russell applies his coor dination account to the difficulties individuals face in controlling d emocratic governments.