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Let us define control as: "the ability to influence a decision" and population as: "a group of individuals that share a common identity or trait" by graphing these two properties against each other (and, let's be real, it's always about making cool graphs), we can qualitatively see that the two are inversely proportional. But what does that mean? Of course if the army rolled in tanks into your front lawn, you would probably listen to them before you listened to your spouse, but in overall power available, the military cannot overcome the population, the police cannot overcome the whole city if it decides to revolt, and there's no way you can win if your brain decides to revolt. Thankfully, none of those things ever happen unless the ones in charge are doing something wrong (for the examples above, they could be intense nationalism, police brutality, and self deprication).

To explain the graph more, the farthest left inidicates you. You have the ultimate control over yourself. You have the final say over all the levers and switches at your disposal, and you have a little bit of control over others too.

A bit to the right is the family unit. Those who have a strong connection (usually on an emotional level) have a significant level of control over yourself.

Further right would be your neighbors and city. The rules they employ affect more people such as they style of house, the amount of water you can consume, and whatnot. These rules are in place for the most part to protect the welfare of those under the influence of the rules. You too have a measurable amount of control at this level, which is why such rules can often benefit certain individuals over others.

Further to the right would be county, state and federal. These bodies have less immediate and actual control over your daily operations, but on the flip side you have less of an effect on their operations.

Now percieved power is an entirely different story. I understand that as a per-individual basis where some may value personal freedom over rules, others may be extemely nationalistic and blindly follow their leaders. I would say the reality is with the chart, and the closer we build our governing structures to that chart, the better operating humanity will be.