2025 Y6 GP Power (Part 2) Notes

2025 Y6 GP: Power (Part 2) How Power has evolved today (Technology reshaping Power), Implications on Stakeholders and the Shift in Power Dynamics, Uncertain Balance of Power → Need for Regulation, Control and Responsibility (next Thematic Lens) Recap: Part 1’s Lecture on Power covered the following: ● Why consider Power ● What is Power ● Origins/Sources of power ● Who wields Power (Stakeholders) ● Manifestations/Examples of Power Organisation of Notes – Part 2’s Lecture on Power will explore the following Essential Questions (EQs): 1) How has Power evolved today ? A. How are technological advancements changing the nature of power and how it is applied ? 2) How is the Changing Nature of Power affecting Stakeholders and the Power Dynamics ? A. How is technology challenging the degree of power that is traditionally held by the government ? B. How is technology strengthening the degree of power held by governments today? C. How is technology shaping the degree of power that individuals have today? Significance of these Essential Questions (EQs): ★ 1: Conceptual Understanding - Examining how power changes across time. ★ 2: Conceptual Understanding - Examining the power relationships across stakeholders - technology shaping the degree of power that governments and individuals have - under different political systems across different societal contexts. 1

1. How has Power evolved today? Traditionally , power used to be exerted from a top-down, unidirectional manner . Non-governmental organisations held governments accountable, and governments had direct control over corporations and individuals. The conventional view of how power is exerted across the stakeholders looks like this: However, today, as technology leapfrogs and pushes the frontiers of knowledge, its practical solutions have solidified our trust in it. Our increasing reliance on technology and its ubiquity is profoundly reshaping the balance of power between governments, corporations, the media, and individuals. Today, Big Tech companies are emerging as a powerful entity that possess: Hard power in the form of: 1) Resources / Wealth: Economic power — control over material resources, money, or capital that is at times larger than what governments possess . 2) Knowledge / Expertise: Intellectual or technical power — having information or specialised skills other stakeholders lack or depend on technology to guide decision making and actions. Soft power established through: 3) Networks / Relationships: Power through forming alliances, connections, and collective support with other research agencies and tech companies. 4) Legitimacy / Recognition: Power granted by collective belief in and reliance on science-based, research-backed, data-driven analyses and solutions . 2

A) How Are Technological Advancements Changing Power? 1. Rise of Big Tech – Companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon control vast amounts of data, influencing behaviour, elections, and even national security. 2. Cyber Warfare and Hacking – Countries now use cyber-attacks to gain power over others (e.g., Russian interference in U.S. elections). 3. Decentralised Finance (Cryptocurrency) – Weakening traditional banks' and governments' hold on money. As a result of the rising power of technology and Big Tech companies, some have argued that states which traditionally held dominant control, are now seeing the absolute terms of their power being undermined. State power is viewed as increasingly decentralised and redistributed by Big Tech companies, who have succeeded, in some cases, in weakening governments’ authority over their people. From this perspective, digital platforms, AI, and big data are said to have arguably upended the power hierarchy, increasingly having the means to advance corporate agendas and empower individual civilians to the detriment of weakened political control. 💡 How is this evolving nature of power shaping the issues we debate about in GP? Let’s take a look at some past year A level questions that examine and evaluate the evolving relationships of power between two stakeholders: 1. ‘ Power these days lies more with the people than the politicians .’ To what extent is this true? (2021) 2. Is modern technology a benefit or threat to democracy ? (2020) 3. Consider the view that social media has more influence than politicians . (2019) Common across these questions is the changing context of how power is acquired and applied (Conceptual Understanding) across these stakeholders. It is necessary to consider how technology has influenced the degree of power that each of the stakeholders have. The following section will explore how technology both empowers and disempowers the government (of different political systems), corporations, and individual civilians. 3

2A) Technology and Government: How governmental power today is challenged by technology Tech companies are increasingly undermining government power in multiple ways. Their influence extends across the regulation of information flows, challenging the digital sovereignty of governments, and interfering with their ability to do law enforcement. Here are some ways in which tech giants are eroding traditional state control: 1. Controlling the Digital Public Sphere: Influencing political discourse, curbing information flows Tech companies now moderate political discourse and control what information reaches the public, sometimes against government interests. A) Social media platforms can weaken political authority ○ Private tech platforms are now setting the rules of engagement , including content moderation and algorithmic gatekeeping or prioritisation of information . ○ Tech companies like Meta (Facebook), Twitter (X), and Google control digital spaces where political discourse occurs. As platforms for civic engagement, social media algorithms influence what the public reads and how public opinion unfolds . This directly shapes the outcomes of voters’ participation in elections, which determine the political longevity of governments. B) Censorship of politicians and facilitating organised civil protests ○ Digital platforms can now de-platform politicians and subvert the traditional power dynamic that assumes only the government has the power to censor and exert control. ○ In authoritarian states, platforms like TikTok and YouTube have become battlegrounds where governments try to exert censorship , but are increasingly met by activists who use them to organise resistance . These social media platforms have allowed civilians to bypass state censorship to facilitate organised movements that topple the ruling dictatorships in some countries - e.g., Facebook and Twitter’s role