The Emergence of Power: A Feedback-Based Model of Influence, Reputation, and Social Norms
Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Abstract: This paper develops a procedural model to formalize the emergence of power as an emergent property of decentralized social feedback, imitation, and influence dynamics. Building on prior models of norm emergence, we extend the framework to incorporate heterogeneous influence weights reflecting agents' symbolic standing and material resources. In doing so, we bridge classical sociological theories of power—including Weberian authority, Bourdieuian capital, and Emersonian dependence—with a tractable microfoundational mechanism grounded in reward-sensitive behavior and reputational dynamics. We demonstrate how differential weighting of social feedback leads to the stabilization of power hierarchies and centralized influence within groups. The model formalizes power as a process rather than a static attribute, providing a unified account of how influence asymmetries emerge, persist, and shape collective action. By clarifying the procedural underpinnings of power emergence, our contribution advances the understanding of influence, authority, and social structure, laying groundwork for cumulative theory-building.
Authors: Peter Marbach, Steven Jiang
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4413231185