Power through Appointment

Abstract The ability to appoint members to a formally constituted group may confer power. That is, through appointment an actor may be able to affect decisions made by the group and to further the actor's own interests. This article analyzes the effects of a number of factors on such power, including population proportions favoring different goals, size of decision-making group, size of pool of potential appointees, and decision-making procedure in the group. Analysis suggests that power through appointment is important; under many conditions, it allows the appointer to control 10% or more of the variation in the outcome. Other conclusions include that a voting procedure gives the appointer more power than a turn-taking procedure for groups of more than two members when population proportions of goals are not extreme and that power concerning the appointer's own interests generally does not parallel power concerning group decisions when more than two goals are relevant.