The Difference Between Political and Institutional Power

(and what it has to do with the Left and right)

I'm not sure all people do realize this difference, and even less so take it into account while assessing our political system. When most people speak of power, they mean political power. About institutional power they might not even be aware. Hence, as a political scientist, I need to write a piece on it too.

So, what are those things exactly? Well, political power is a power which might be obtained through elections - power to pass the legislation, and then to implement and enforce it, most of all. Political power is what our official democratic political system - that is, President or Prime Minister, government and Parliament - wields. For many people, again, there is ALL power that there is. And, since in democracies we people de facto elect all these officials, this majority naively believe that in truth they people have all the power via elections. 

The truth is that there is also an institutional power, and I argue that it is much more important than political power, and much more POWERFUL in truth. Institutional power means exerting control over major institutions of our society (e.g., media, universities, NGOs, medical organizations, and even private companies which activity affects political life like social media companies). 

Why institutional power is MUCH MORE important than political one? Well, first of all, it is much more STABLE. Political power is too frail and unstable and might change every election. While if you had captured an institution, you can keep it in your power for indefinite amount of time. Also, you might not care of plebeians taking your power away because regular people cannot elect NGOs or university board as they do political parties. Moreover, those institutions aren't even directly accountable to the the official branches of political power since in democracy we have 'freedom of press and academic freedom', alas. Just a PERFECT environment to capture institutions and then resist any accountability. 

In addition to it, institutions actually wield MORE power than official branches of political power, largely because institutions can INFLUENCE PUBLIC OPINION much more (and then public would vote for those whom the occupants of those institutions want them to vote). Almost ALL of those institutions have a HUGE influence on public opinion - mainstream media with their propaganda, universities with their indoctrination of our young generation. social media giants with their manipulation of information, and even NGOs with their campaigning for the 'pressing issues' (which is the ones NGOs declared to be such - no one fact-checks them). 

You don't believe in institutional power? Then tell me why Trump was SO LARGELY UNPOPULAR both in US and in the world during his first term DESPITE the fact that Republicans had ALL THE POLITICAL POWER BACK THEN? (Trump was a Congress, and Republicans controlled both Senate and House in Trump first two years). If political power was indeed ALL that mattered, then surely Republicans could have easily suppressed all information (or misinformation to be more precise) smearing campaign against Trump? Yet for some mysterious reason they failed to do so. Why? Because the Democratic Left - their opponents - had captured ALL MAJOR American institutions back then, and via them they launched and coordinated this unprecedented in American history smearing campaign against then current President. Moreover, this campaign was very successful, and Republicans were unable to resist it despite having all the political power. So much for political and institutional power. See for yourselves which one is stronger and matters more. 

Now, the question of institutional power is so extremely important also because it is the power which the Western Left had silently captured and now hold on to it (as you could see from Trump example). The silent overtake of all our major institutions by Left wing activists started long ago - from the collapse of USSR at least when American Intelligence relaxed its guard on Communist activities - and now it's almost complete. The scheme of this overtake is very simple. The Left start with universities as basic and most important institutions, and from campus there is a direct pipeline also into NGOs, media and even private companies. that is, the Left indoctrinate students, and then those indoctrinated students go to work as CNN reporters or LGBT+ activists...Simple but diabolic scheme. 

The Left do not care much for political power since they DO realize that institutional one is much more important. Moreover, it is convenient for them to pretend to be 'powerless' and 'oppressed' by the 'powerful right', 'fighting the system' from within while in truth they had already silently captured all this system from within. Yet the Left would never admit it and instead claim that they have NO real power (and by power they ALWAYS mean political power!) while their opponents have all the power. Classic gaslighting game again - to play victim while in truth holding ALL THE POWER in their hands. 

Now, why did the right allow the Left to capture all the institutions? I guess it is because, just like the majority of people, the right had underestimated the importance of institutions and institutional power in the modern world. Being old-school conservatives, they preferred to fight for political power instead, as they always used to do, being blind to new reality and Leftist capture of all the institutions (that's why I believe conservatives are NOT the answer and cannot really fight the Left). We need independent liberals and new grassroot movements to overturn the new Leftist tyranny.