Everything about Tripartite Classification Of Authority totally explained
Max Weber distinguished three
ideal types of political leadership, domination and authority:#
charismatic domination (familial and religious),
- traditional domination (patriarchs, patrimonalism, feudalism) and
- legal domination (modern law and state, bureaucracy).
These 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.
Charismatic domination
Charismatic authority grows out of the personal charm or the strength of an individual personality. It was described by Weber in a lecture as "the authority of the extraordinary and personal gift of grace (charisma)"; he distinguished it from the other forms of authority by stating "Men don't obey him [thecharismatic ruler] by virtue of tradition or statute, but because they believe in him." This form of authority can be seen in
populist dictatorships where one individual exerts control by virtue of their personal popularity and following. Many states based on this model don't survive the death or fall from power of their original leader.
Traditional domination
In traditional authority, the legitimacy of the
authority comes from
tradition; Weber described it as "the authority of the eternal yesterday" and identified it as the source of authority for
monarchies.
Legal domination
Legal authority, also known as legal-rational authority, is where an individual or institution exerts power by virtue of the legal office that they hold. It is the authority that demands obedience to the office rather than the office holder; Weber identified
"rationally-created rules" as the central feature of this form of authority. Modern
democracies are examples of legal-rational regimes. People also abide by legal-rational authority because it makes sense to do so for their own good, as well as for the greater good of society.
The classification of authority in the context of history
Weber also notes that legal domination is the most advanced, and that societies evolve from having mostly traditional and charismatic authorities to mostly rational and legal ones, because the instability of charismatic authority inevitably forces it to "routinize" into a more structured form of authority. Likewise he notes that in a pure type of traditional rule, sufficient resistance to a master can lead to a "traditional revolution". Thus he alludes to an inevitable move towards a rational-legal structure of authority, utilizing a bureaucratic structure. This ties to his broader concept of
rationalization by suggesting the inevitability of a move in this direction. Thus this theory can be sometimes viewed as part of the
social evolutionism theory.
In traditional authority, the legitimacy of the
authority comes from
tradition, in charismatic authority from the personality and leadership qualities of the individual (
charisma), and in legal (or rational-legal) authority from powers that are
bureaucratically and legally attached to certain positions. A classic example of these three types may be found in religion:
priests (traditional),
Jesus (charismatic), and the
Roman Catholic Church (legal-rational). Weber also conceived of these three types within his three primary modes of conflict: traditional authority within status groups, charismatic authority within
class, and legal-rational authority within party organizations.
In his view every historical relation between rulers and ruled contained elements that can be analyzed on the basis of the above distinction.
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