Max Weber distinguished three ideal types of political leadership, domination and authority: charismatic domination (familial and religious), traditional domination (patriarchs, patrimonalism, feudalism) and legal domination (modern law and state, bureaucracy). He also notes that legal dominiation is the most advanced, and that societies evolve from having mostly traditional and charismatic authorities to mostly rational and legal ones, due to the fact that the instability of charismatic authority inevitably forces it to "routinize" into a more structured form of authority. Likewise he notes that in a pure type of traditional rule, sufficient resistance to a master can lead to a "traditional revolution". Thus he alludes to an inevitable move towards a rational-legal structure of authority, utilizing a bureaucratic structure. This ties to his broader concept of rationalization by suggesting the inevitability of a move in this direction. Thus this theory can be sometimes viewed as part of the social evolutionism theory. 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. ... Ideal type, also know as pure type, or idealtyp (in the original German), is an typological term invented by sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920). ... This article needs cleanup. ... Traditional authority (also known as traditional domination) is a form of leadership in which the authority of an organization or a ruling regime is largely tied to the tradition. ... Rational-legal authority (also known as rational authority, legal authority, rational domination, legal domination) is a form of leadership in which the authority of an organization or a ruling regime is largely tied to legal rationality, legal legitimacy and bureaucracy. ... Look up Rationalization on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Rationalization can refer to more than one thing: In psychology, rationalization is the process of constructing a logical justification for a decision that was originally arrived at through a different mental process. ... Social Evolutionism is a athropological and sociological social theory that holds that societies progress through stages of increasing development, i. ...

In traditional authority, the legitimacy of the authority comes from tradition, in charismatic authority from the personality and leadership qualities of the individual (charisma), and in legal (or rational-legal) authority from powers that are bureaucratically and legally attached to certain positions. A classic example of these three types may be found in religion: priests (traditional), Jesus (charismatic), and the Roman Catholic Church (legal-rational). Weber also conceived of these three types within his three primary modes of conflict: traditional authority within status groups, charismatic authority within class, and legal-rational authority within party organizations. In politics, authority generally refers to the ability to make laws, independent of the power to enforce them, or the ability to permit something. ... The word tradition, comes from the Latin word traditio which means to hand down or to hand over. ... The word charisma (from the Greek word kharisma or gift), is often used to describe an ability to charm or influence people. ... Bureaucracy is a concept in sociology and political science. ... Roman Catholic priest A priest or priestess is a holy man or woman who takes an officiating role in worship of any religion, with the distinguishing characteristic of offering sacrifices. ... Jesus, also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity, in which context he is known as Jesus Christ (from Greek Ιησούς Χριστός) with Christ not being a name but rather a title meaning Anointed. He is also considered a very important prophet in Islam. ... The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the Christian Church led by the Pope, currently Benedict XVI, and whose adherents constitute almost half of all Christians worldwide. ... Social class describes the relationships between people in hierarchical societies or cultures. ...

In his view every historical relation between rulers and ruled contained elements that can be analyzed on the basis of the above distinction.

Characteristic	Charismatic	Traditional	Legal-Rational
Type of ruler	Charismatic leader	Dominant personality	Functional superiors or bureaucratic officials
Position determined by:	Having a dynamic personality	Established tradition or routine	Legally established authority
Ruled using:	Extraordinary qualities and exceptional powers	Acquired or inherited (hereditary) qualities	Virtue of rationally established norms, decrees, and other rules and regulations
Legitimized:	Victories and success to community	Established tradition or routine	General belief in the formal correctness of these rules and those who enact them are considered a legitimized authority
Loyalty:	Interpersonalàpersonal allegiance and devotion	Based on traditional allegiances	To authority / rules
Cohesion:	Emotionaly unstable and volatile	Feeling of common purpose	Abiding by rules (see Merton’s theory of deviance)
Leadership:	Rulers and followers (disciples)	Established forms of social conduct	Rules, not rulers
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See also

• Form of government
• Separation of powers