Authority

It is usual to say authority confers legitimacy on power. It may not be correct to say, however, that 'authority is legitimised power' because there are some forms of authority which are not concerned with the exercise of power: for example, the authority of the priest over his flock, or the authority of parents over children. Others would argue that these two instances are illustrations of the exercise of power. If this is the case it may be necessary in political science discourse to separate the concept of power into political power and non-political power.

Here we are concerned with political power, as was the German social and political theorist, Max Weber, when he concluded that legitimacy was conferred upon power-holders in three different ways. These types of authority were distinguished by different characteristics. Each is an 'identikit'what he called an 'ideal-type'a set of features helping in identification. In reality every form of government is a mixture of these ideal-types. Thus an ideal-type is a characterisation of features which helps expounding, explaining, investigating and learning.

2.3.1 Traditional authority

This is based upon a belief in the sanctity of age-old rules and practice of power. Weber divided it into three sub-types:

1. A belief that the oldest in the community should exercise authority. One might call this gerontocracy.

2. Patriarchalism, which is a form of simple dynastic rule, under which authority is passed down in succeeding generations to the male head of one particular family.

3. Patrimonialism, which occurs where patriarchal rule begins to develop an administrative apparatus as was typical of medieval Europe emerging from feudalism, and of Oriental despotisms.

In all forms of traditional authority government is exercised personally and often arbitrarily. There is no clear definition of the rules. Values underlying judgements by the rulers possess, or are given, the quality of 'revealed truth'.

2.3.2 Legal/rational authority

In contrast with traditional authority this refers to a situation where power is held to be legitimate because authority is conferred by rules which have been drawn up in a rational framework. Thus a society in which legal/rational authority prevails is one in which laws are obeyed. This applies to the rulers and their apparatus for ruling. They are also subject to the laws. Hence the society is characterised by norms of impersonality and lack of arbitrariness. The exercise of power is clearly defined and loyalty is accorded by subordinates because they perceive it to be based on rationality.

Weber implies, though he does not assert, that legal/rational authority is the best. It was the most rational and it is a feature of the way the world was developing. More and more the world was becoming subject to organisational forms and the salient feature of this organisation was bureaucracy, the administrative apparatus by which the laws are implemented (See Chapter 17 for an examination of this concept).

2.3.3 Charismatic authority

This is quite different from the other two types. Weber defines charisma as 'a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is... treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least exceptional powers or qualities'. Legitimacy is thus based upon the claim of such a leader to have the qualities essential for leadership, and the acceptance of this claim by his followers. The ruler reinforces his authority by the performance of actions, seen to be heroic and, perhaps, near-miraculous.

The emergence of charismatic authority is associated with the breakdown of an established order and a change in systems of values. It may destroy the customs of traditional authority and the laws of legal/ rational authority. Essentially it is a revolutionary force and is bound to be temporary and transitional. Charismatic rule will either revert to traditional rule through a charismatic ruler establishing a dynasty, or it will be 'routinised' and regularised and become legal/rational authority.

The nebulous nature of the notions of power and legitimacy, their resistance to empirical investigation and yet their obvious importance is, as noted above, fertile soil for the growth of conspiracy theories about the location and thrust of political power-wielders in society. Elitists see power as impossible to wrest from consolidated oligarchies. Marxists see power as almost invisibly exerted by the capitalist class. They prevent the working class from realising its true revolutionary role and knowing its own interests by bribing them with consumer goods and/or manipulating their minds with propaganda. Thus the capitalists hold on to power.

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