One of the most important philosophers on power is Michel Foucault who showed us the relationship between power and knowledge in works like Discipline and Punish (1997) and “The Subject and Power” (1982) among others.

In “The Subject and Power” he writes:

“Power relations are rooted deep in the social nexus, not reconstituted ‘above' society as a supplementary structure whose radical effacement one could perhaps dream of. Power is not something that is acquired, seized, or shared, something that one holds on to or allows to slip away; power is exercised from innumerable points, in the interplay of nonegalitarian and mobile relations.”