Preface: How This Book Came About xi
Chapter One The Decay of Power
1(19)
Have You Heard of James Black Jr.?
2(2)
From the Chess Board... to Everything Around Us
4(6)
What Changed?
10(2)
The Decay of Power: Is It New? Is It True? So What?
12(3)
But What Is Power?
15(2)
The Decay of Power: What's at Stake?
17(3)
Chapter Two Making Sense of Power: How It Works and How to Keep It
20(15)
How to Talk About Power
22(1)
How Power Works
23(4)
Why Power Shifts---or Stays Steady
27(1)
The Importance of Barriers to Power
28(2)
The Blueprint: Explaining Market Power
30(1)
Barriers to Entry: A Key to Market Power
31(2)
From Barriers to Entry to Barriers to Power
33(2)
Chapter Three How Power Got Big: An Assumption's Unquestioned Rise
35(16)
Max Weber, or Why Size Made Sense
38(4)
How the World Went Weberian
42(3)
The Myth of the Power Elite?
45(6)
Chapter Four How Power Lost Its Edge: The More, Mobility, and Mentality Revolutions
51(25)
So What Has Changed?
52(2)
The More Revolution: Overwhelming the Means of Control
54(4)
The Mobility Revolution: The End of Captive Audiences
58(6)
The Mentality Revolution: Taking Nothing for Granted Anymore
64(1)
How Does It Work?
65(5)
Revolutionary Consequences: Undermining the Barriers to Power
70(4)
Barriers Down: The Opportunity for Micropowers
74(2)
Chapter Five Why Are Landslides, Majorities, and Mandates Endangered Species?
The Decay of Power in National Politics
76(4)
From Empires to States: The More Revolution and the Proliferation of Countries
80(2)
From Despots to Democrats
82(4)
From Majorities to Minorities
86(5)
From Parties to Factions
91(4)
From Capitals to Regions
95(2)
From Governors to Lawyers
97(3)
From Leaders to Laymen
100(1)
Hedge Funds and Hacktivists
101(2)
The Political Centrifuge
103(4)
Chapter Six Pentagons Versus Pirates: The Decaying Power of Large Armies
107(22)
The Big Rise of Small Forces
112(3)
The End of the Ultimate Monopoly: The Use of Violence
115(3)
A Tsunami of Weapons
118(3)
The Decay of Power and the New Rules of War
121(8)
Chapter Seven Whose World Will It Be? Vetoes, Resistance, and Leaks---or Why Geopolitics Is Turning Upside Down
129(30)
The Stakes of Hegemony
135(2)
The New Ingredients
137(2)
If Not Hegemony, Then What?
139(2)
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Traditional Power at Bay
141(6)
Soft Power for All
147(2)
The New Rules of Geopolitics
149(1)
Just Say No
150(2)
From Ambassadors to Gongos: The New Emissaries
152(3)
Alliances of the Few
155(1)
Anyone in Charge Here?
156(3)
Chapter Eight Business as Unusual: Corporate Dominance Under Siege
159(34)
In the Land of Bosses, Authority, and Hierarchy
163(2)
What Is Globalization Doing to Business Concentration?
165(1)
The Power and Peril of Brands
166(2)
Market Power: The Antidote to Business Insecurity
168(3)
Barriers Are Down, Competition Is Up
171(13)
New Entrants and New Opportunities
184(7)
What Does All This Mean?
191(2)
Chapter Nine Hyper-Competition for Your Soul, Heart, and Brain
193(25)
Religion: The Nine Billion Names of God
194(6)
Labor: New Unions and Nonunions
200(5)
Philanthropy: Putting the Bono in Pro Bono
205(6)
Media: Everyone Reports, Everyone Decides
211(7)
Chapter Ten The Decay of Power: Is the Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty?
218(15)
Celebrating the Decay of Power
219(2)
What's Not to Like? The Dangers of Decay
221(1)
Political Paralysis as Collateral Damage of the Decay of Power
222(2)
Ruinous Competition
224(1)
Be Careful What You Wish For: Overdosing on Checks and Balances
225(2)
Five Risks
227(6)
Chapter Eleven Power Is Decaying: So What? What to Do?
233(12)
Get Off the Elevator
234(2)
Make Life Harder for the "Terrible Simplifiers"
236(1)
Bring Trust Back
237(2)
Strengthen Political Parties: The Lessons from Occupy Wall Street and Al Qaeda
239(2)
Increase Political Participation
241(2)
The Coming Surge of Political Innovations
243(2)
Appendix: Democracy and Political Power 245(10)
Acknowledgments 255(4)
Notes 259(20)
Bibliography 279(10)
Index 289