Tripartite classification of authority
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Related e |
Featured: |
Max Weber distinguished three ideal types of legitimate political leadership, domination and authority:
- charismatic authority (familial and religious),
- traditional authority (patriarchs, patrimonalism, feudalism) and
- legal authority (modern law and state, bureaucracy).
These three types are ideal pure types and rarely appear in their pure form.
According to Weber, authority is power accepted as legitimate by those subjected to it. These three forms of authority are said to appear in an "hierarchical development order". States progress from charismatic authority, to traditional authority, and finally reach the state of rational-legal authority which is characteristic of a modern liberal democracy.
[edit]
Comparison table
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 | Interpersonal & personal allegiance and devotion | Based on traditional allegiances | To authority / rules |
Cohesion | Emotionally 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 |
[edit]
See also
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Tripartite classification of authority" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.