Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently announced he's starting an online book club—part of his New Year's resolution to read a book every other week—and his very first pick is The End of Power by Moises Naim, a 2014 treatise on the demise of traditional power paradigms in the corporate, business, and political worlds. We hit up the folks at Amazon to find out more about The End of Power—and, over the past year, what parts of Naim's book have resonated most profoundly with its readers. Here are the most-underlined passages from Naim's The End of Power, according to Amazon Kindle readers.
PDF The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States q q q q q q EBOOK DETAIL Author: Moises Naim Pages: 320.
'Power is the ability to direct or prevent the current or future actions of other groups and individuals. Or, put differently, power is what we exercise over others that leads them to behave in ways they would not otherwise have behaved.' 'In the twenty-first century, power is easier to get, harder to use—and easier to lose.' '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.' 'A world where players have enough power to block everyone else's initiatives.
Here are the most-underlined passages from Naim's The End of Power, according to Amazon Kindle readers.' Power is the ability to direct or prevent the current or future actions of other groups and individuals. Or, put differently, power is what we exercise over others that leads them to behave in ways they would not otherwise have behaved.' .' In the twenty-first century, power is easier to get, harder to use—and easier to lose.'
.' 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.' .' A world where players have enough power to block everyone else's initiatives but no one has the power to impose its preferred course of action is a world where decisions are not taken, taken too late, or watered down to the point of ineffectiveness.' .'
Power becomes entrenched as a result of barriers that shield incumbents from rivals.' Have you read The End of Power? Tell us what your favorite passages are.
In Egypt, the mandate on which political rulers work is getting much narrower, and this was used as ammunition against the former president, Mohammed Morsi who was overthrown. Will there be such thing as a landslide in the next elections in Egypt?
Moises Naim Books
Why is it harder to gain the popular majority?MN: One needs to start with the premise that elections are carried out on a level playing field where each candidate and each party has the same chances and resources, that the government refrains from meddling, that public resources are not used to support a specific candidate, and that the election is impartial, objective and competitive. All of this may be an heroic assumption for Egypt. But it’s what any Egyptian that wants a free and democratic nation ought to fight for.If there are elections in Egypt, what we do know is that this is a deeply polarized, deeply divided society. Perhaps it is even becoming a “normal” democracy, and sadly as we’ve seen, in today’s world “normal” democracies, are those where landslides are very rare and fragmented politics are the norm.Your book also draws on the idea that the barriers that shielded and protected power are falling, for instance money, charisma, property rights and control of exclusive assets. But for countries in the Arab Spring, including Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, there is still a long way to go before governments will cede control to other institutions. Is this going to be a hindrance for the success of those countries’ revolutions?MN: In fact, what we have seen in North African countries is that governments are having a hard time retaining control.
Ben Ali, Qaddafi, Mubarak and others did not voluntarily cede power, but were forced to abandon it. This shows that there are forces at work limiting the ability of governments to retain command.The central message is not that governments have no power, but that power is harder to use and maintain over long periods of time.
The leaders of the regimes that have succeeded the long entrenched dictators may have fallen into the temptation of following some of their authoritarian practices. But what we have seen in Egypt is that it’s no longer easy to be a dictator these days.You foresee a reorganisation of power, which will no longer be top-down and rigid but messy, sprawling and driven by the attempt to acquire power by many.Egypt is no doubt going through a “messy” transition, which was most recently driven by the military’s overthrow of the Islamist government. But there is a debate about whether this was a military coup, or a popular revolution. Is this internal tension an example of what you see as the future of democracy-building, or are there simply too many actors vying for power and stopping any transition in its tracks?MN: There is no doubt that Egypt has reached a delicate situation and it is at a critical juncture. And yes, Egypt’s political system is now full of actors with some power to influence the state of affairs.
The End Of Power De Moises Naim Pdf 2016
But nobody has the power to dominate the situation and unilaterally determine outcomes or impose its will on others—not even the military.Rules for governance need to be reshaped and sharpened. There needs to be broad accord on how decisions are made, power is shared, government kept accountable, and elections remain free and fair. Space must be made for outside opinions to be heard. Excessive flexing of power needs to be curbed.
But remember, a democracy is not only what happens the day of the election. What happens in the period between elections is just as important.