In politics, authority generally refers to the ability to make laws, independent of the power to enforce them, or the ability to permit something. People obey authority out of respect, while they obey power out of fear. For example, "the congress has the authority to pass laws" vs "the police have the power to arrest law-breakers". Authority need not be consistent or rational, it only needs to be accepted as a source of permission or truth. Politics is the process and method of making decisions for groups. ... Law (a loanword from Old Norse lag), in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments for those who do not follow... Sociologists usually define power as the ability to impose ones will on others, even if those others resist in some way. ... For the band, see The Police. ...

Questions as to who has what authority often lie at the heart of political debates, and answers to those questions normally stem from practical and moral considerations, from prior practices and from theories of criminal justice or of the just war. Morality is a system of principles and judgments based on cultural, religious, and philosophical concepts and beliefs, by which humans determine whether given actions are right or wrong. ... The study of criminal justice traditionally revolves around three main components of the criminal justice system: police courts corrections Nowadays, it is sometimes argued that psychiatry is also a central part of the criminal justice system. ... What is a just war? The just war is an international law doctrine that postulates that a war can be just only if it satisfies a set of moral or legal rules. ...

In sociology, authority comprises a particular type of power. The dominant usage comes from functionalism and follows Weber in defining authority as power which is recognised as legitimate and justified by both the powerful and the powerless. Weber further sub-divided authority into three types: Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ... Sociologists usually define power as the ability to impose ones will on others, even if those others resist in some way. ... The article is about functionalism in sociology; for other uses, see functionalism. ... Maximilian Weber (April 21, 1864 – June 14, 1920) was a German political economist and sociologist who is considered one of the founders of the modern, antipositivistic study of sociology and public administration. ...

• Traditional authority which simply derives from long-established habits and social structures. The right of hereditary monarchs to rule furnishes an obvious example.
• Charismatic authority. From time to time, people make extraordinary claims of heading a revolution of some kind (which is always against a well-established system of traditional or legal-rational authority). When followers take such claims seriously, this exemplifies charismatic authority: religious or political authority that does not flow from tradition or law, but instead thrives on the short-lived excitement of social change. The careers of Lenin, Martin Luther, Hitler, and Lech Walesa provide examples. Charismatic authority never lasts long (even when successful) and it inevitably gives way to either traditional or to legal-rational authority.
• Legal-rational authority depends for its legitimacy on formal rules, usually written down, and often very complex. Modern societies depend on legal-rational authority.

As an example of the development of legal-rational authority, consider the history of France. In medieval times a king ruled simply because he was the king (i.e., he held traditional inherited authority), but by the 17th century it became necessary to invent a doctrine claiming that Louis XIV ruled by "divine right": in other words, to justify Louis' authority by a rational claim to his appointment by a legitimate superior (God). This served for another century, but was threatened by the rival claim made to legal-rational authority by the various legislative bodies of the early years of the French Revolution, and then eclipsed by the charismatic authority held by Robespierre and his cohort during the Reign of Terror, then the legal-rational authority of the Directory, and the mixed legal-rational and charismatic authority of the Consulate and First Republic (the charisma in this last case being that of Napoleon Bonaparte). A monarch is a type of ruler or head of state. ... This article needs cleanup. ... A revolution is a relatively sudden and absolutely drastic change. ... Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин  listen), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) (April 22 (April 10 (O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, the leader of the Bolshevik party, the first Premier of the Soviet Union, and the founder of the ideology of Leninism, later expanded into... Martin Luther (originally Martin Luder or Martinus Luther) (November 10, 1483–February 18, 1546) was a German theologian and an Augustinian monk whose teachings inspired the Protestant Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines of Lutheran, Protestant and other Christian traditions (a broad movement composed of many congregations and church bodies). ... Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889–April 30, 1945) was the Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Imperial chancellor) of Germany from 1933 to his death. ... Lech Wałęsa (pronounced , born September 29, 1943, Popowo, Poland) was an Polish electrician, a trade union activist, a human rights activist and a politician. ... The word legitimacy comes from the Latin word legitimare and it has two uses: Legitimacy (political science) is whether or not people accept the validity of a law or ruling or the validity of a governing regime. ... Gaul Main article: Gaul Settled mainly by the Gauls and other Celtic peoples (apart from a shrinking area of Basque population in the southwest and Ligurian population on the southern coast), the area of modern France comprised the bulk of the region of Gaul (Latin: Gallia) under the rule of... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... A monarch is a type of ruler or head of state. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... Doctrine, from Latin doctrina, (compare doctor), means a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. ... (Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638 – September 1,rance]] and King of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death. ... The term God is used to designate a Supreme Being; however, there are other definitions of God. ... The period of the French Revolution is very important in the history of France and the world. ... Portrait of Maximilien Robespierre by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, painted 1786. ... The Reign of Terror (June 1793 - July 1794) was a period in the French Revolution characterized by brutal repression. ... Executive Directory (in French Directoire exécutif), commonly known as the Directory (or Directoire) held executive power in France from 2 November 1795 until 10 November 1799: from the end of the Convention to the beginning of the Consulate. ... The Consulate marks a period of French constitutional history between 1799 and 1804 - from the fall of the Directory to the start of the Napoleonic Empire. ... The French people proclaimed Frances First Republic on 21 September 1792 as a result of the French Revolution and of the abolition of the French monarchy. ... Bonaparte as general Napoleon Bonaparte ( 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a general of the French Revolution and was the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from November 11, 1799 to May 18, 1804, then as Emperor of the French (Empereur des Français...

The Restoration (1814) marked a return to traditional authority, but now with elements of the legal-rational as well, at least until the ascent of Charles X; his attempt to restore a more absolute monarchy brought on the July Revolution, which formally restored this balance of legal-rational and traditional in the form of a constitutional monarchy. The Revolution of 1848 passed rapidly into a legal-rational mode, falling ultimately to the Second Empire, which saw a blend of all three modes: the government Napoleon III retained a constitution of sorts and, in his person, he combined the Napoleonic charismatic claims with what was now a certain element of tradition, a Bonapartist dynasty to rival the Bourbons. Following the ousting of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814, the Allies restored the Bourbon Dynasty to the French throne. ... 1814 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Charles X, King of France and of Navarre (October 9, 1757 – November 6, 1836) was born at the Palace of Versailles. ... Absolute monarchy is an idealized form of government, a monarchy where the ruler has the power to rule his or her country and citizens freely with no laws or legally-organized direct opposition telling him or her what to do, although some religious authority may be able to discourage the... Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix commemorates the July Revolution The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution, was a revolt by the middle class against Bourbon King Charles X which forced him out of office and replaced him with the Orleanist King Louis-Philippe. ... A constitutional monarchy is a form of government established under a constitutional system which acknowledges a hereditary or elected monarch as head of state. ... The Revolution of 1848 in France Up to 1848 in France As 1848 began, liberals awaited the death of King Louis Philippe, expecting revolution after his death. ... The Second French Empire or Second Empire was the imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France. ... Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (April 20, 1808, Paris, France - January 9, 1873, Chislehurst, Kent, England) was a President of France, and later, Emperor of the French. ... The House of Bourbon dates from at least the beginning of the 13th century, when the estate of Bourbon was ruled by a Lord, vassal of France. ...

The complex pattern can be continued practically down to the present day, with a steadily diminishing role for traditional authority, except insofar as republicanism itself has become a tradition. In the Twentieth Century, France had at least two charismatic leaders, Philippe Pétain and Charles de Gaulle. The constitution of the Fifth Republic overtly a legal-rational system, was tailored specifically for the purpose of creating a presidency powerful enough that the charismatic leader de Gaulle would consent to accept it. This article is on the political theory of republicanism. ... Philippe Pétain Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain (April 24, 1856 - July 23, 1951), generally known as Philippe Pétain or Marshal Pétain, was a French soldier and leader of Vichy France. ... Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (November 22, 1890 – November 9, 1970), in France commonly referred to as le général de Gaulle, was a French military leader and statesman. ... The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, which was introduced on October 5, 1958. ...

Within conflict theory, "authority" is used both in the same sense as Weber's functionalist definition above, and in a rather different sense which is based on the observation that power is almost never endorsed in a moral sense by those who do not have it, and therefore defines "authority" as power which is so institutionalised that it is largely unquestioned. In sociology and biology, conflict theory states that the society or organization functions so that each individual participant and its groups struggle to maximize their benefits, which inevitably contributes to social change such as changes in politics and revolutions. ... Institutions are organizations, or mechanisms of social structure, governing the behavior of two or more individuals. ...

Obedience to authority seems thoroughly ingrained in most of the population: the Milgram experiment showed that over 60% of a sample of Americans demonstrated willingness to torture another person to death when given orders from an appropriate authority figure. This experiment produced similar results when replicated in several other cultures. A similar effect was found in the Stanford prison experiment. Obedience is the willingness to follow the will of others. ... The experimenter (E) convinces the participant (S) to give what the participant believes are painful electric shocks to another participant (A), who is actually an actor. ... The Stanford prison experiment was a landmark psychological study of the human response to captivity, in particular, to the real world circumstances of prison life. ...

Government Agency

An authority can also be a government agency set up with a particular competence and is able to deal with all matters within its charter; such as the Tennessee Valley Authority and a Port Authority. They are usually created by special legislation and are run by a board of directors. They are also, usually, required to be self-supporting through property taxes or fees for services. See Special-purpose district. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the TVA Act The Tennessee Valley Authority is a New Deal agency created to generate electric power and control floods in a seven-U.S.-state region around the Tennessee River Valley. ... The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a bi-state agency (operated pursuant to an interstate compact) that runs most of the regional transportation infrastructure including the bridges, tunnels, airports and seaports within the New York-New Jersey Port District. ... A board of directors is a group of individuals chosen by the stockholders of a company to promote their interests through the governance of the company. ... Property tax is an ad valorem tax that an owner of real estate or other property pays on the value of the thing taxed. ... Generally a special-purpose district, also known as a special district, is a governmental entity differing from general-purpose districts like municipalities, counties, etc. ...

See also

• Appeal to authority
• The Authority (His Dark Materials)
• Church authority
• conformity
• Law
• power
• Political corruption
• Régime
• Seniority
• Trust

An appeal to authority is a type of argument in logic also known as argument from authority, argumentum ad verecundiam (Latin: argument to respect) or ipse dixit (Latin: he himself said it, where an unsupported assertion depends on the asserters credibility). ... The Authority in Philip Pullmans trilogy of novels His Dark Materials is the equivalent of God - or according to Pullman the God of the Inquisition. ... Church authority means that the Church decrees rites and ceremonies. ... In psychology, conformity is the degree to which members of a group will change their behavior, views and attitudes to fit the views of the group. ... Law (a loanword from Old Norse lag), in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments for those who do not follow... Sociologists usually define power as the ability to impose ones will on others, even if those others resist in some way. ... In broad terms, political corruption is the misuse of public office for private gain. ... The word regime (occasionally spelled régime, particularly in older texts) refers to any system of control, or more specifically a system of government. ... Seniority is the concept of a person or group being in charge or in command of another person or group. ... The term trust has several meanings: In sociology, trust is the willingly acceptance of one persons power to affect another. ...

External links

• Stanford Encyclopedia entry (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/authority/)