authority - Revision history

Rev 22: Reverted edits by 64.247.69.74 (Talk) to last version by AlterBot

2008-11-20T10:11:16Z

Reverted edits by 64.247.69.74 (Talk) to last version by AlterBot

64.247.69.74: nn

2008-11-20T04:23:07Z

AlterBot: robot Modifying: es:Autoridad

2008-10-05T18:48:08Z

robot Modifying: es:Autoridad

AlterBot: robot Adding: es:autoridad, it:autorità

2008-09-23T19:15:35Z

robot Adding: es:autoridad, it:autorità

83.154.110.102: +fr + de

2006-08-21T20:09:38Z

+fr + de

millosh at 05:45, 13 December 2004

2004-12-13T05:45:17Z

millosh at 05:44, 13 December 2004

2004-12-13T05:44:37Z

New page

In [[politics]], '''''authority''''' generally refers to the ability to make [[law]]s, independent of the [[power (sociology)|power]] to [[law enforcement|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.

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 [[morality | moral]] considerations, from prior practices and from theories of [[criminal justice]] or of the [[just war]].

In [[sociology]], ''authority'' comprises a particular type of [[power (sociology) | power]]. The dominant usage comes from [[Functionalism (sociology)|functionalism]] and follows [[Max Weber|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:

* ''Traditional authority'' which simply derives from long-established habits and social structures. The right of hereditary [[monarch]]s 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 [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]], [[Martin Luther]], [[Adolf Hitler | 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 [[monarch|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 of France | 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 [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]] and his cohort during the [[Reign of Terror]], then the legal-rational authority of the [[French Directory|Directory]], and the mixed legal-rational and charismatic authority of the [[French Consulate|Consulate]] and [[French First Republic|First Republic]] (the charisma in this last case being that of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]).

The [[Bourbon Dynasty, Restored|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 IX of France|Charles IX]]; 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 [[The Revolutions of 1848 in France|Revolution of 1848]] passed rapidly into a legal-rational mode, falling ultimately to the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]], which saw a blend of all three modes: the government [[Napoleon III of France|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 [[House of Bourbon|Bourbons]].

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 PÃ©tain]] and [[Charles de Gaulle]]. The constitution of the [[French Fifth Republic|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.

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 [[institution]]alised that it is largely unquestioned''.

[[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]].

==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]]. See [[Special-purpose district]].

==See also==

*[[appeal to authority]]
*[[power (sociology)|power]]
*[[trust]]
*[[rÃ©gime]]
*[[law]]
*[[seniority]]
*[[conformity (psychology)|conformity]].

[[Category:social ethics]]
[[Category:social psychology]]

==Credits==
*Article is adapted from [[wikipedia:authority]].

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-[[es:autoridad]]
+[[es:Autoridad]]
 [[fr:AutoritÃ©]]
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@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 ==Credits==
 *Article is adapted from [[wikipedia:authority]] under the terms of [[GNU FDL]].
-[[fr:AutoritÃ©]]
 [[de:AutoritÃ¤t]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:09, 21 August 2006
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	==Credits==		==Credits==
	*Article is adapted from [[wikipedia:authority]] under the terms of [[GNU FDL]].		*Article is adapted from [[wikipedia:authority]] under the terms of [[GNU FDL]].
		+	[[fr:AutoritÃ©]]
		+	[[de:AutoritÃ¤t]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 05:45, 13 December 2004
Line 37:		Line 37:

	==Credits==		==Credits==
−	*Article is adapted from [[wikipedia:authority]].	+	*Article is adapted from [[wikipedia:authority]] under the terms of [[GNU FDL]].

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:11, 20 November 2008
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	nn	+	In [[politics]], '''''authority''''' generally refers to the ability to make [[law]]s, independent of the [[power (sociology)\|power]] to [[law enforcement\|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.
		+
		+	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 [[morality \| moral]] considerations, from prior practices and from theories of [[criminal justice]] or of the [[just war]].
		+
		+	In [[sociology]], ''authority'' comprises a particular type of [[power (sociology) \| power]]. The dominant usage comes from [[Functionalism (sociology)\|functionalism]] and follows [[Max Weber\|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:
		+
		+	* ''Traditional authority'' which simply derives from long-established habits and social structures. The right of hereditary [[monarch]]s 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 [[Vladimir Lenin\|Lenin]], [[Martin Luther]], [[Adolf Hitler \| 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 [[monarch\|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 of France \| 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 [[Maximilien Robespierre\|Robespierre]] and his cohort during the [[Reign of Terror]], then the legal-rational authority of the [[French Directory\|Directory]], and the mixed legal-rational and charismatic authority of the [[French Consulate\|Consulate]] and [[French First Republic\|First Republic]] (the charisma in this last case being that of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]).
		+
		+	The [[Bourbon Dynasty, Restored\|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 IX of France\|Charles IX]]; 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 [[The Revolutions of 1848 in France\|Revolution of 1848]] passed rapidly into a legal-rational mode, falling ultimately to the [[Second French Empire\|Second Empire]], which saw a blend of all three modes: the government [[Napoleon III of France\|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 [[House of Bourbon\|Bourbons]].
		+
		+	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 PÃ©tain]] and [[Charles de Gaulle]]. The constitution of the [[French Fifth Republic\|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.
		+
		+	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 [[institution]]alised that it is largely unquestioned''.
		+
		+	[[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]].
		+
		+	==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]]. See [[Special-purpose district]].
		+
		+	==See also==
		+
		+	*[[appeal to authority]]
		+	*[[power (sociology)\|power]]
		+	*[[trust]]
		+	*[[rÃ©gime]]
		+	*[[law]]
		+	*[[seniority]]
		+	*[[conformity (psychology)\|conformity]].
		+
		+	[[Category:social ethics]]
		+	[[Category:social psychology]]
		+
		+	==Credits==
		+	*Article is adapted from [[wikipedia:authority]] under the terms of [[GNU FDL]].
		+
		+	[[de:AutoritÃ¤t]]
		+	[[es:Autoridad]]
		+	[[fr:AutoritÃ©]]
		+	[[it:autoritÃ ]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-In [[politics]], '''''authority''''' generally refers to the ability to make [[law]]s, independent of the [[power (sociology)|power]] to [[law enforcement|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.
+nn
-−
-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 [[morality | moral]] considerations, from prior practices and from theories of [[criminal justice]] or of the [[just war]].
-−
-In [[sociology]], ''authority'' comprises a particular type of [[power (sociology) | power]]. The dominant usage comes from [[Functionalism (sociology)|functionalism]] and follows [[Max Weber|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:
-−
-* ''Traditional authority'' which simply derives from long-established habits and social structures. The right of hereditary [[monarch]]s 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 [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]], [[Martin Luther]], [[Adolf Hitler | 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 [[monarch|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 of France | 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 [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]] and his cohort during the [[Reign of Terror]], then the legal-rational authority of the [[French Directory|Directory]], and the mixed legal-rational and charismatic authority of the [[French Consulate|Consulate]] and [[French First Republic|First Republic]] (the charisma in this last case being that of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]).
-−
-The [[Bourbon Dynasty, Restored|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 IX of France|Charles IX]]; 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 [[The Revolutions of 1848 in France|Revolution of 1848]] passed rapidly into a legal-rational mode, falling ultimately to the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]], which saw a blend of all three modes: the government [[Napoleon III of France|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 [[House of Bourbon|Bourbons]].
-−
-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 PÃ©tain]] and [[Charles de Gaulle]]. The constitution of the [[French Fifth Republic|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.
-−
-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 [[institution]]alised that it is largely unquestioned''.
-−
-[[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]].
-−
-==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]]. See [[Special-purpose district]].
-−
-==See also==
-−
-*[[appeal to authority]]
-*[[power (sociology)|power]]
-*[[trust]]
-*[[rÃ©gime]]
-*[[law]]
-*[[seniority]]
-*[[conformity (psychology)|conformity]].
-−
-[[Category:social ethics]]
-[[Category:social psychology]]
-−
-==Credits==
-*Article is adapted from [[wikipedia:authority]] under the terms of [[GNU FDL]].
-−
-[[de:AutoritÃ¤t]]
-[[es:Autoridad]]
-[[fr:AutoritÃ©]]
-[[it:autoritÃ ]]