「權力」與「因果」一直都是政治研究領域中十分重要的兩個概念，但晚近以來竟然惹起應否存廢的仁智之見。大體而言，拋棄「權力」概念的聲音，雖然微弱而短促，但卻出自著名權力研究學者之口；丟棄「因果」概念的說詞，則以各種形式展現在一些弔詭的論述中。　 顯而易見的，不論存廢音量的高低或大小，在各吹各調之下，確實潛藏著無數糾葛而難以處理的複雜課題。尤須注意的，一些著名學者非常堅決地主張「權力關係就是－種因果關係」或「界定了因果關係也就界定了權力關係」，從而使得原已不易處理的兩個課題，頓然糾纏交織在一起，以至於棘手問題益形棘手。　 本文試以當代著名政治學者Robert Dahl的權力論述為主軸，分就幾個層面，爬梳「權力」與「因果」之間的一些糾葛，期望能對困難重重的複雜問題，略盡棉薄之力。本文的解析，將從「權力概念的因果涵義」、「因果關係與因果條件句」、及「因果關係與因徑係數」等三個主要部份，逐一分別進行。

Few concepts have played more central roles in the study of political science than ‘power’ and ‘causation’. But students of the subject have fallen into serious ambiguities in recent decades. Some scholars claim that the concepts of power and causation underlie virtually every description of political interaction, domestic as well as international. But one strong modem tradition takes the view that the less we believe about the concepts of power and causation the better. In view of the present state of affairs in the research area, this article seeks to accomplish three tasks in order to provide a firmer foundation for future research. First, to review Robert Dahl's papers on power and causality in order to explicitly identify and elaborate the causation implication of power definition. Second, to examine systematically the connection between causal conditionals and causality. Third, to discuss the relationship between path coefficients in path analysis and ‘amount of power’ in Dahl's power definition.