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The author attempts to provide a critical evaluation of the conception of "political power" as understood by John Searle. In the first section of this paper, the author presents J. Searle's arguments which take him from brute facts to political power and identify some shortcomings. In the second part of this paper the author evaluates J. Searle's results and bring arguments that justify the claims that he: 1) misinterprets the difference between brute facts and institutional facts by overestimating the role of language and status function declarations in formation and sustainability of social institutions. 2) Equates political power with legitimate political power and thus is unable to explain political actions such as war and terrorism and 3) does not explain human behavior or social processes, but offers a new description of social phenomena, which, however, are not particularly promising in heuristic sense.