POWER – DEPENDENCE THEORY (USE AND BALANCING – EXCHANGE RELATION)

The next theory is  Emerson (1972),’Power-dependence theory’,  brought out the concept of power and its place in dependence. The tenet of Emerson power-dependence theory revolve around power, power use, and power balancing, and rest on the central concept of dependence. Mutual dependence bring people together and are more likely to form exchange relations. Emerson explained that it is the inequalities in dependence that create power imbalances.

  Emerson defined power as “ the level of potential cost which one actor can induce another to accept”, while dependence involves, “the level of potential cost an actor will accept within a relation.” These definitions led to Emerson’s power-dependence theory (Molm, 2007) , which Yamagish, Gilmore, and Cook (1988),  summarized; that the power of one party over another in an exchange relation is an inverse function of his or her dependence on the other party (Whitmeyer, 2005).  Unequal power and dependency lead to imbalances in relationships.

 Molm and Cook (1995) regard dependence as the critical concept in Emerson’s work. As Molm puts it, “ the actors dependencies on each other are the major structural determinants of their interaction and of  their power over each other”. A sense of dependence is linked to Emerson’s definition  with keys to illustration, that; “ the power of A and B is equal to, and based upon, the dependence of B upon A”. He identified that there is balance in the relationship between A and B when the dependence of A and B equals the dependence of B on A, where there is an imbalance in the dependences, the actor with less dependence has an advantage in terms of power.  Power is a potential, built into the structure of the relationship between A and B. Power also can be used to acquire rewards from the relationship. The work of Prebisch (1997), on global level revealed how economic growth in the advanced industrialized countries did not necessarily lead to growth in the poorer countries. The study found out that economic activity in the richer countries often led to serious economic problems in the poorer countries, which brings out the point of persistent poverty  of the poorer countries. This situation helps to explain the poverty being  experienced by most of the developing nations of Africa like Nigeria. This dependency has deepened the poverty level in the rural areas to an alarming level. 

Due to this poverty, women in the developing countries with their low-socio-economic status now depend on what to do to survive. Agarwal (1992) identified that poverty of women in the developing countries is on the increase which is counted on globalization, social policies that neglect women, inequality in employment  and existing gender- based repression. And with their introduction to small-scale quarry mining in areas where they are found like in the developing nations, they now depend on the work with the attendant health risks (Molm, 2007 ). These poor women are equally exploited by the mine owners as there are in most cases no other options of work around the rural areas. Bohn-Bawerk (1990) observed in his work , that power and dependence allows the institution of private property by the privileged few to reap the benefits of the workers. The privileged few referred here are the capitalists; who in this case are the owners of these small-scale quarry mines, and the reliance of these women on quarry mining   to earn a living lead to their being exploited and lack of negotiations.