Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci developed the concept of cultural hegemony in the early twentieth century. He described this hegemony as a centaur with the beast of coercion and the human face of consent. This concept explained why revolutions failed in Italy while succeeding in Russia due to the absence of consensual power.
John R. P. French and Bertram Raven identified five categories of power bases in a landmark study published in 1959. These categories include expert power, reward power, coercive power, referent power, and legitimate power. Expert power derives from skills, reward power involves positive outcomes, coercive power relies on punishment, referent power stems from admiration, and legitimate power is based on formal authority.
The term counterpower appeared in Martin Buber's book Paths in Utopia in 1949. This usage predates its prominence in the global justice and anti-globalization movements of the 1990s. Anthropologist David Graeber later defined counterpower as a collection of social institutions set in opposition to the state and capital.
Power alters the psychological state of individuals by promoting approach tendencies and leading to more positive emotions like happiness and satisfaction. Powerful people tend to smile more frequently and experience heightened optimism about the future. However, this state weakens social attentiveness and creates blind spots regarding the point of view of others.
The 2011 Arab Spring succeeded because subjects withdrew the consent that sustains the regime. Gene Sharp argued that political power ultimately derives from the obedience of the subjects of the state. When subjects withdraw their obedience, the power structure collapses and authoritarian regimes fall.
Feminist linguist Deborah Cameron describes an unmarked identity as the default which requires no explicit acknowledgment. Heterosexuality and masculinity are often unmarked and assumed as the norm, while homosexuality and femininity are marked and require clearer signaling. This distinction reveals how power is embedded in the language and categories people use to understand the world.