A Comparative Assessment of the Opinions and Theories of Edward Said and Michel Foucault on Power and Its Mechanisms

In the present study, the concept of "power" and its mechanisms have been studied from the perspective of two contemporary thinkers, "Edward Said" and "Michel Foucault". Both thinkers in the field of power and its mechanisms have important theories and opinions that a careful study of these theories can create a new understanding of this concept for us. Foucault's different views and perceptions of the mechanisms of power contain very important points and issues, and Said's attitude towards power also has significant theoretical subtleties. In this research, with a descriptive-comparative approach and using the documentary technique, the researcher has studied the written and unwritten works of two thinkers and then has compared their opinions and theories. After a comparative evaluation of the opinions of thinkers, the results of the research show that the two are largely in agreement on the definition of power and the mechanisms of its application, but have different views on the issue of "agency" and "resistance to power". And in these two cases, we see a difference of opinion between them.