Vectors of pressure

One way to reduce the complexity of the political process is to think of its micro or meso-level components - the relationships of influence between actors - as “vectors of pressure,” a generic or formal term for an influence relationship. This viewpoint decomposes the process of politics into multiple, generative, interacting series of dyadic influence relationships. Each influence relationship reflects its political, economic, social and cultural contexts. Applying the term vector simplifies and objectifies the influence relationship, allowing the conversion of qualitative information on it into categorical “data.”

To illustrate, in the “navel” engagement, Nishio and the protest group exerted a vector of pressure upon Governor Taki - a control vector. The immediate control the protestors exercised over the governor's immediate behavior had some, though not definitive, effect upon later policy outcomes - an impact vector. Each relationship therefore represents two types of pressure vectors. The vector from actor A to actor B represents direct inter-actor control. The vector from the dyadic relationship to the (usually much later) policy outcome of concern represents the ultimate impact of the relationship. Each control vector, exerting influence or power (total control) by one actor over another, can be composed of various, perhaps mixed, rewards, sanctions and tactical modes. Each impact vector represents the gross quantity of influence that that particular combination of elements had upon a policy outcome at a certain time. I do not mean the term vector to conjure up a billiard-ball image of politics as atomistic actors bouncing off each other. Vectors of pressure may travel as much along established, institutionalized pathways between actors as impact voluntaristically.