Key Idea: Power is the ability to influence or control people, events or resources. Online it is exercised through defaults, access, visibility and information — and the strongest form is the one that produces no decision to object to.
Paper 1
- Part a: define power, or identify the distribution questions
- Part b: explain how a described organisation exercises it
- Part c: evaluate who benefits from a described system
Paper 2
- Q2: explain a source's claim about control
- Q3: compare sources written from different positions
- Q4: synthesise sources on who decides
Everywhere else
- Every part c in the subject is a distribution question
- Economic: the platform sets the ranking and the fee
- Political: regulatory reach is a function of market size
Four ways power is exercised online
| Mechanism | Why it works |
|---|---|
| Setting defaults | Almost nobody changes one, and there is no rule to object to |
| Controlling access | Deciding who may act at all is prior to everything else |
| Deciding visibility | What is ranked twentieth is not read |
| Holding information | Knowing more about somebody than they can prove about themselves |
Network effects, switching costs and infrastructure position produce outcomes whoever occupies them. A kinder owner of the same position holds the same power, which is why remedies here are about portability and interoperability rather than behaviour.
The three-question test
Apply this to any system in the course
- Who decides? Which organisation set this up, and who chose the rule?
- Who gains? Whose costs fall or revenue rises when it works?
- Who bears the cost of an error? And can they find out, or appeal?
Important: In almost every system the first two are the same party and the third is somebody else. Naming that split is most of a part-c evaluation.
Exam-style questions
Compare the power held by a platform with the power held by a government over the same population.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Justify the claim that data portability alone will not weaken a dominant platform.
🔒 Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Quick check
Why are defaults the strongest lever? They need no enforcement and give nobody anything to object to, yet almost nobody changes them.
What is structural power? Power produced by the arrangement rather than by a decision, so it continues whoever occupies the position.
The three questions Who decides? Who gains? Who bears the cost of an error?
Portability or interoperability? Portability attacks switching costs; interoperability attacks network effects. Only together do they let you leave.
Exam tips
- A power answer with no named actor and no named decision is a description of the internet, not an answer.
- Ask whether a problem is conduct or structure before proposing a remedy. The answer decides which remedy can work.
- Write the three questions on your rough paper at the start of Paper 1.