Lukes Reloaded: An Actor-Centred Three-Dimensional Power Framework

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

This article develops an empirically-oriented actor-centred power framework. Building on work of Lukes and Gaventa, the article outlines how visible, hidden and invisible power can be understood and operationalised. The article considers how actors can realise their interests through decision making and the control of resources (visible power); backdoor machinations and institutional organisation (hidden); and the structural-discursive empowerment of the actor and the creation and use of discourse (invisible). Furthermore, a regime evolution approach is sketched that facilitates understanding the dialectical interplay between society and the formal political arena, and that focuses the measurement of power on societal outcomes – not political outputs.