Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Politics Power and Authority
Politics Power and Authority
Power &
Authority
What is Politics?
Rewards
Payment for good behavior
Withholding benefits for bad behavior
Legitimacy (authority)
Established moral right to rule
Moral obligation for followers to obey
Sources of Power
Force
Physical Violence or the
credible threat thereof
Not just angry or harsh words
Consequences of Force?
Quick compliance
Resentment and hostility
Requires monitoring – Costly
Generates revolt and
sabotage
Unstable by itself
Sources of Power
Rewards
Payment for good behavior
Withholding benefits for bad behavior
Consequences
Compliance without hostility
Costly, requires constant payoffs
Requires monitoring
Reward “inflation”
Bankruptcy
Sources of Power
Legitimacy (authority)
Established moral right to rule
Moral obligation for followers to
obey
Consequences
Obedience without monitors
Loyalty and respect
Low cost to ruler
Efficient and stable
Sources of Power
Legitimacy (authority)
Consequences Continued
Abuse of power
Followers become victims
Corruption
Max Weber
1864-1920 Germany
The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism
Sociology of Religion
Economics
Government
Weber on Authority
3 Types
Rational Legal
Modern
Based on rules and processes
Bureaucracy
Traditional
Old Europe
Inherited authority
Charismatic
Special, Personal, Revolutionary
Based on individual leader’s special characteristics
Rational Legal Authority
Authority is bounded
Limited to a particular context
Relationships are specific and
bounded
Limited to a context
Limited to a time
Limited within specific range of action
Rational Legal Authority
Strengths:
Predictable
Orderly
Transparent
All are equal
Relatively little chance for abuse
Protects subordinates’ rights
Rational Legal
Authority
Problems:
Slow
Rigid and inflexible
Impersonal
Processes may overwhelm goals
Stupid outcomes may result
Quick obvious solutions blocked
Rational Legal Authority
Typical of modern, democratic
governments
Emphasizes equality
Potential Strengths:
Stable and orderly
Flexibility, not bound by excessive rules
Generates strong positive associations
“Right” doesn’t get blocked by process or rules
Traditional Authority
Potential Problems
“Right” seen only from leader’s perspective
Fickle
No way to remove incompetent leaders
No room for exemplary talent to rise
Unlimited or unrestrained power leaves potential
for abuse wide open
Little room for the “individual”
Charismatic Authority
Charisma vs charisma
Personal characteristics of leader
Super-human
Uniquely able to resolve grand problems
The Charismatic leader IS the solution
Special relation to deity? Sometimes
Charismatic Authority
newspaper
charisma
Charismatic Leaders
Only recognizable if:
Demand dramatic, life-altering changes
Require followers to change dramatically
Even doing things they previously
believed to be morally wrong
Followers accept and follow those demands
Mao Tzedong
Jim Jones
Moses
Christ
Joseph Smith
Adolph Hitler
Newspaper charisma but
NOT Weber’s CHARISMA
John F Kennedy
Mother Teresa
Barack Obama
Oprah Winfrey
Ronald Reagan
How does it happen?
Major crisis – either personal or societal
Potential Strengths
Rapid change is possible
Old, corrupt systems can be
overthrown
A new world is possible
May really solve major problems
Charismatic Authority
Potential problems
New world is worse than the old
Leader is an idiot and everything crashes
Grand Schemes are OK, but not details
Leader abuses authority – followers victimized
Transitions of authority very dicey
Leaders usually very jealous of subordinate
leaders
Leaders resist routinization
Collapse at leader’s demise
Weber’s 3 Authority Types:
Review
Rational legal
Modern, procedures, limits, common in
democratic government
Traditional
Old monarchy, family, sometimes religion
Charismatic
Rare, Revolutionary, Leader is superhuman
and unlimited
What is Government?
Generic:
The system of offices that oversee and guide
the interactions of individuals in a political
system
Thomas Hobbes
Human life in the state of nature is “nasty,
brutish and short.”
Create Order
Protect life
Defend property rights
Enforce contracts
The problem…