Power, Authority and Legitimacy Flashcards
Power
What is power defined as?
The ability to achieve a desired effect even if there is opposition
Power
How can power be delegated?
- Consent
- Coercion
Power
What does power imply?
- Ability to make and enforce decisions that are binding on others
Power
What does influence imply?
- Ability to influence the decision making process through external pressure
Power
What is power without authority called?
Naked power
Power
What is the intentionalist view of power?
Power is always linked to an identifiable group
Power
What is the structuralist view of power?
Power is a feature of the social system
Power
What Steven Lukes’ Three Faces of Power?
- Ability to influence decision making (preferrable)
- Ability to influence non-decision-making
- Ability to manipulate individual preferences
Authority
What is authority?
A form of power which is legitimate, and confers the right to influence behaviour. Individuals accept the right to rule.
Authority
What example can be used to demonstrate that authoritarian regimes do not suffer loss of confidence in the same manner?
Robert Mugabe
Authority
What does Locke say about authority?
(Liberal)
- Locke believes government must be limited, rational and with purpose. Should protect the natural rights of the citizen
Authority
What does Scruton argue about authority?
(Conservative)
Authority is a natural necessity whilst authority derives from unequal distribution of wisdom, experience and social standing - authoritarianism does not need to be checked.
Authority
What does Bakunin argue about authority?
(Anarchist)
Authority is the opposite of freedom - essentially morally corrupting and encourages domination
Legitimacy
What does legitimacy do?
the process which transforms authority into power - legitimacy implies respect, law does not.
Power
What are Keith Boulding’s three methods of influencing decision making?
- The Stick - use of intimidation or force
- The Deal - arriving at a set of circumstances or decisions for mutual benefit
- The Kiss - creating a sense of commitment, loyalty or obligation
Authority
What are Max Weber’s models of authority?
- Legal-rational - most important form - replaces traditional authority, most applicable in modern society. Used in bureaucratic systems of today’s society. Operates through de jure authority, not de facto
- Charismatic - based on personal appeal - cult of personality. Linked strongly to authoritarianism.
- Traditional - long established customs - legitimate because has always been legitimate.
Authority
What is an alternative perspective of authority?
- Authority in law - de jure - through procedures and rules. ‘In authority’
- Authority in practice - de facto - usually through an individual, not necessarily a rule or procedure - ‘an authority’
Power and Authority
What are the ideological justifications for power and authority?
- conservative - authority = natural necessity. Key part of all institutions. Plato used this to justify philosopher kings. Basis of community, strengthens social cohesion - Burke and Irving Kristol
- Social Contract - classical justification - no state = state of nature. Requires rationality and restraint, protects civil liberties
- Authoritarian Perspective- Authority = threat. Arendt and Reich - collapse of authority leads to totalitarianism. Loss of traditional moral and social behaviours and authority that brings identity, stability and reassurance allows dictatorship
- Marxist - not solely opposed to authority, does not like inquitous authority of liberal democratic regimes
- Anarchist - state is exploitative and oppressive. Any authority is wrong
Authority
What did Irving Kristol say about permissive society?
Permissive society has undermined authority - evidenced in the rise of anti-social behaviour.
Legitimacy and authority
What did Rousseau, Weber and Beetham say about authority and government?
- Rousseau - government by general will
- Weber - Legal rational, charismatic and traditional
- Beetham: Three conditions necessary
- Exercised according to conventions, codes and rules
- Rules must reflect the belief of government
- Unqualified consent of those who are governed
Legitimacy
How does legitimacy operate in democracy and dictatorships?
- Democracy through elections and constitutionalism
- Dictatorships through facade democracy and progress
Legitimacy
What is consent?
- Individuals agree to participate or hold responsibility for a desired outcome.
- Basic criteria of legitimacy
- Heart of mandate
Legitimacy
How is consent gained in a democracy?
- Active involvement in voting
- Tacit consent through obligation
Legitimacy
Gaining consent in a dictatorship
- Popular consent
- Rallies and marches
- Plebiscites
- Facade elections
- Marxist-Leninism - through the adherence to core tenets of Marxist-Leninism by the Proletariat Party
Legitimacy
What is the Marxist criticism of ideological hegemony and manufacturing of consent?
- Liberal democracies dominated by bourgeois ideology - bourgeoisie is dominant
- Ideologies are false claims, delusions or mystification
- Gramsci - bourgeoise hegemony - proletarian could not achieve class consciousness because of delusion
- Mannheim, Berger and Luckmann - ideologies - socially determined, everything is a social construct
Chomsky - Manufacturing Consent - News and political story is manipulated by private media owners for profit
