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the network society, in a binary mode: to be or not to be on television. Or, aschapter 16 in this volume documents, on the Internet, as an alternative form ofsociopolitical presence, using the input of grassroots power. Therefore, thelanguage of politics and media tactics are essential in shaping the public mind,and therefore the capacity of societies to manage themselves. Which takes usto the fundamental question in social theory: the question of power.Power in the NetworksInformationalism and the network society 31Where does power lie in the network society? I have already analyzed thepower of the networks that make up the network society over human communitiesor individuals who are not integrated into these networks. In this case,power operates by exclusion/inclusion. But who has power in the dominantnetworks? This depends on how we define power. Power is the structuralcapacity to impose one’s will over another’s will. There can be bargaining, but,in the last resort, power is exercised when, regardless of the will of someone(a person, a social group, a category of people, an organization, a country, andthe like), that actor must submit to the will of the power-holder – or else beexposed to violence of different forms. Under these conditions, the question ofpower-holding in the networks of the network society could be either verysimple or impossible to answer.The very simple answer: each network defines its own power systemdepending on its programmed goals. Thus, in global capitalism, the globalfinancial market has the last word, and the IMF is its authoritative interpreterfor ordinary mortals. The word is usually spoken in the language of the UnitedStates Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board, with the occasionalGerman, French, Japanese, or Oxbridge accent, depending upon timesand spaces. Or else, in terms of state military power, there is just the power ofthe United States, or, in more analytical terms, the power of any apparatus ableto harness technological innovation in the pursuit of military power, which hasthe material resources and know-how to invest in technology without gravelyhampering its social and economic equilibrium.On the other hand, the question could become an analytical dead-end if wetry to answer one-dimensionally: the source of power as a single entity.Military power could not prevent a catastrophic financial crisis; in fact, itcould provoke it under certain conditions of irrational, defensive paranoia.Alternatively, the global financial market can be seen as an automaton, out ofthe control of any major financial institution, because of the size, volume, andcomplexity of the flows of capital that circulate in its networks, and becauseof the dependence of its valuation criteria on unpredictable information turbulences.Political decision-making is said to be dependent on the media, and themedia constitute a plural ground, however biased in ideological and political