[DenisM]

In the anarchic world the power originates at the muzzle of a gun, which in turn roughly corresponds with the economic power. However, this arrangement has high costs of conflict resolution, so in the post-anarchy world violence is ceded by society to be the monopoly of the state, and politicians are set to be conduits of the economic power towards the power of the state. Where politicians don't do their job, economic power goes out whack with political power resulting into a violent upheaval.

Therefore in modern society power lies with economic actors - people, capital, or any other entity that has economic impact and can be modeled as pursuing its own interests (self-preservation and some expansion).

A stable society would represent the interests of the people and the interests of the capital in proportion to their economic influence. Some actors will usually try to usurp the power at the expense of less diligent and/or less organized actors.

A great deal of the usurpation is based on demoralizing the opponent - if your opponent believes fighting for representation if power structures is pointless, you will have more power for yourself.