Influence vs. Control
Term
Influence vs. Control
Idea Level
Concept
Definition
Distinguishing between influence and control, Yuen Yuen Ang defines control as the attempt to achieve particular desired outcomes, whereas influence means shaping adaptive processes when outcomes, solutions, and even preferences are uncertain—that is, they cannot be fully known in advance. While humans may control outcomes in complicated, machine-like settings, trying to control complex systems often backfires; instead, the right course of action is influence: directing agents to learn, adapt, and find their own solutions.
Sources
First articulation:
Ang, Y.Y.(2016) How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, Chapter 2, Table 2.1 (Complicated vs. Complex).
Theoretical Synthesis
Ang, Y.Y. (2024) “Adaptive Political Economy: Toward a New Paradigm.” World Politics.
Table 1 (reprinted from How China Escaped the Poverty Trap)
Genealogy
[Paradigm] AIM (Adaptive, Inclusive, Moral Political Economy)
→ [Pillar] Adaptive Political Economy (APE)
→ [Concept] Complex ≠ Complicated
→ [Concept] Influence vs. Control
→ [Model] Directed Improvisation
Quotes
This traditional emphasis on control is predicated on a complicated world view, which assumes that those who seek to control know for sure what they want and take actions to achieve their goals. A world of complexity, however, is full of uncertainty. Even authoritarian leaders sometimes do not know what precise outcomes they prefer or what solutions may arise. In a complex world, influencing processes of change and empowering ground-level actors to find their own solutions promises to be more fruitful than trying to control exact outcomes.
— Ang, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016), Chapter 2, p. 49
One essential step toward promoting adaptation is to distinguish control from influence. In complicated situations where the range of problems and solutions can be predicted in advance, principals seek to exercise control over agents in order to achieve desired outcomes. But in complex settings—exemplified by all political economies—the possible scope of problems and solutions and even preferences lies beyond human anticipation and planning. In these situations, seeking to exert full control is futile and may even foreclose useful solutions. Nevertheless, there is room to exert influence so as to direct bottom-up adaptation toward constructive and collective purposes.
— Ang, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016), Chapter 7, p. 240
The differences between complicated machines and complex systems are not semantic but have profound implications for the way social scientists understand causality, indeterminacy, human agency, and institutional design.
— Ang, Adaptive Political Economy (2024)
Concept Constellation
Across Ang’s work, Influence vs. Control consistently co-appears with the following concepts and analytic themes: