MAX WEBER: CONCEPT OF

POWER AND AUTHORITY

AUTHORITY-MEANING
• Authority-legitimized power
• Legitimacy-acceptance of exercise of power

POWER-MEANING
• Ability to carryout wishes, policies
• To control behavior of others
• The resources come from his position in group
• Power is a social relationship
• It is a reciprocal relationship
CONCEPT OF AUTHORITY
• Probability of a command to be obeyed
• Obedience depends in diverse motives
• Determined by interest situation
• By mere custom
• Personal devotion of the governed
• Authority resets on force
• Force recognized as legitimate
• Legitimized power is authority
CATEGORIES OF AUTHORITY
1. TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY
• Belief in sacredness of tradition
• Tradition, privilege, humor represented by patriarchal
authority.
2. CHARISMATIC AUTHORITY
• Uncommon, extra ordinary devotion to heroic force of
an individual.
3. LEGAL AUTHORITY
• Belief in legality of consciously created order
• Right to give commands vested with the person
• His right to govern legitimized by enactment
4. CHARISMATIC AUTHORITY
• It is one of the great revolutionary forces in history
• It is authoritarian and lordly in nature
5. RATIONAL OR LEGAL AUTHORITY
• Legal enactment sanctions
• It is found in bureaucratic section
• The person in command is recognized to be
superior legally
• His right to govern is legitimized by enactment