Question

Constraining Monopoly Power:

Recently the new media giants of Facebook, Google, and other online firms have taken advantage of network economies of scale to gather a new type of monopoly power, i.e., power over consumer information and the power to influence the beliefs, opinion, voting preferences and perceived knowledge of those consumers. Many in the media, in politics and in the general population have become concerned over the use of private (and now not so private) information by these firms. One classification of power subdivides power into Political Power, Economic Power and Moral Power. Political Power is defined as the power to take or destroy. Economic Power is the power to set prices and command an economic profit. Moral Power is the long-term power of the country’s populace to constrain political and economic power. Government typically has political power. That power may be given to the government in a contract from the populace as in a democracy (or democratic republic) or taken as in a dictatorship. Economic power is the power a firm has when it produces a product or service and can set prices, limit competitors, differentiate its products and services through branding, technology or other means or gain monopoly power through legal or illegal means. If Economic Power rises to the level that it challenges the Political Power (i.e., challenge the throne), those with Political Power will constrain the firms exercising Economic Power. In the United States those with Political Power use the antitrust laws and regulation to constrain Economic Power. The constraint on both Political and Economic Power resides in the ability of the people to influence those with political power to constrain abuses by those with Economic Power or to vote with their dollars by not buying the goods and services of those with Economic Power. If neither method works then the populace as a whole can vote those in power out of office (as in a democracy or democratic republic) or revolt and throw the existing leaders out. Either way moral power is a long-term constraining force on the behavior of those with Political and Economic Power.

Answer 1

Ans. In recent days we have seen lot about such advertising agencies which are hired by companies like Facebook and Google which majorly influence all the sectors like economic power and political power but by conquering moral power anyone can conquer both economic and political power. Like in real life we have seen lot of examples like " if we search anything on Google or any commodity than it automatically visible to us on other shopping sites like Amazon so we can see how these companies play with consumers today how easily they control our preferences and force us through advertising to grab that product. So many political powers are paying high amount of money to these companies for this type of data and ultimately they force hard to change our moral views by showing different series, advertisements and through other electronic forms too . So we can say if we want our upper hand in economic and political power so we have to take a hard look at moral power because with the time our political and economic preferences change but moral preferences remain constant.