America: The Jesuit Review

Among the many revolutions taking place all around us in our hyperconnected world, argue authors Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms in New Power, is one involving a perennial issue in every society and culture: the nature and use of power.

“Old power,” argue the authors, is like a currency: held and directed by a leadership class that controls it jealously. “New power,” however, is more like a current of water or electricity: open, participatory and most potent when it surges. A smart leader doesn’t seek to hoard new power like currency but to channel it like a current. This new power is made possible by connectivity—facilitated by peer-to-peer communication and leadership approaches, crowdsourcing and online engagement with audiences. The authors use examples ranging from the edifying, like fundraising for a cure for A.L.S. through the “ice bucket challenge,” to the horrifying, as in the rise of white nationalist movements, to show where and how new power erupts and interrupts.

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