I’d model it as them having had the amount of power equal to their on-paper power times Sam’s probability that they can successfully wield it. Being perceived as having social power is what having social power means, after all. I doubt he’d been certain they’d lose in a conflict like this, so he would’ve been at least a bit wary of starting it, i. e. would’ve shied away from actions that the board would dislike.
Now it’s established knowledge that they have no real power, and so they truly don’t have it anymore, and so Sam is free to do whatever he wants and he at last knows it.
I’d model it as them having had the amount of power equal to their on-paper power times Sam’s probability that they can successfully wield it. Being perceived as having social power is what having social power means, after all. I doubt he’d been certain they’d lose in a conflict like this, so he would’ve been at least a bit wary of starting it, i. e. would’ve shied away from actions that the board would dislike.
Now it’s established knowledge that they have no real power, and so they truly don’t have it anymore, and so Sam is free to do whatever he wants and he at last knows it.