Tripartite classification of authority

The German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) distinguished three ideal types of legitimate political leadership/domination/authority (German: Herrschaft, lit. 'mastership'). He wrote about these three types of domination both in his essay "The Three Types of Legitimate Rule", which was published in his 1921 masterwork Economy and Society (see Weber 1922/1978:215-216), and in his classic 1919 speech "Politics as a Vocation" (see Weber 1919/2015:137-138):

  1. charismatic authority (character, heroism, leadership, religious),
  2. traditional authority (patriarchs, patrimonialism, feudalism) and
  3. rational-legal authority (modern law and state, bureaucracy).

These three types are ideal types and rarely appear in their pure form.

According to Weber, authority (as distinct from power (German: Macht)) is power accepted as legitimate by those subjected to it. The three forms of authority are said to appear in a "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.

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