The analysis of the economic power in the works by J.K. Galbraith

The article describes John Kenneth Galbraith's contribution to the problem of economic power. The article considers his conception of three sources of power: the person, property and organization; and three instruments required for possessing and exercising the power, such as the condign power, compensatory power and conditioned power. The article analyzes the Galbraith' theory of power evolution, the change of the sources and the instruments for its implementation during the transition from one socio-economic system to another, from a pre-industrial society to an industrial and to a post-industrial then. The characteristic and usage algorithm of the countervailing power as a way to reduce and regulate the economic power is provided. The countervailing power is directed to the restraint of private economic power and rent-seeking behavior of economic agents through neutralizing one position of power with another one.