Sociologists have a particular approach to the study of the power and authority of government that differs from the perspective of political scientists. Political scientists focus mainly on studying the distribution of power in different types of political systems. They would observe, for example, that the political system of the United States is divided into three distinct branches (legislative, executive, and judicial), and they would examine how public opinion influences political parties, elections, and the political process in general. However, sociologists are more interested in the influence of state power on society and how social conflicts arise from the distribution of power. Sociologists also study how the use of power affects local, state, national, and global agendas, which in turn affect people differently depending on status, class, and socioeconomic position. Protesters in Tunisia and civil rights protesters in the days of Martin Luther King Jr. had influence beyond their position in a government. Their influence came in part from their ability to champion what many people believed to be important values. Heads of government can also have this type of influence, but they also have the advantage of exercising the power associated with their official functions and the considerable resources of the state. As this example shows, there is more than one type of power in a community. STATE.
One who governs himself independently of a foreign power. Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teenager, has made waves around the world and delivered powerful and moving speeches on climate change. What started as a protest led to speeches in forums such as the UN and the World Economic Forum. Although she does not occupy a formal position of authority, she influences change by being a leader with whom others can identify, to the point that hundreds of thousands of children are now demanding radical changes in climate policy. Despite the differences between the systems of government of the Middle East and the United States, their governments play the same fundamental role: in a sense, they exercise control over the people they govern. The nature of this control – what we will define as power and authority – is an important characteristic of society. According to Weber, the power of traditional authority is accepted because it has been traditionally; Its legitimacy exists because it has been accepted for a long time. Queen Elizabeth of England, for example, occupies a position she inherited because of the monarchy`s traditional rules of succession. People cling to traditional authority because they are invested in the past and feel compelled to perpetuate it. In this type of authority, a leader usually has no real power to carry out his will, and his position depends mainly on the respect of a group. Not all authority figures are police officers, elected officials or government agencies. In addition to formal functions, authority can derive from tradition and personal qualities.
Max Weber, one of the key figures in sociology, recognized this when he examined individual actions in relation to authority as well as large-scale authority structures and their relationship to the economy of a society. Based on this work, Weber developed a system for classifying authority. Its three types of authority are traditional authority, charismatic authority and legal-rational authority (Weber 1922). “`Sovereignty` is a term that is used in many ways and is much abused. As used here, it implies the legitimate control of a state over its territory in general to the exclusion of other states, the power to govern over that territory and the power to apply the law there. A more specific form of traditional authority is patrimonialism, which is a traditional rule facilitated by an administration and military that are purely personal instruments of the master (Eisenberg 1998). In this form of authority, all civil servants are personal favorites appointed by the leader. These officials have no rights and their privileges can be increased or revoked at the whims of the leader.
The political organization of ancient Egypt was typical of such a system: when the royal house decreed that a pyramid had to be built, every Egyptian was forced to work on its construction. Home » Past Issues » Government » Which of the following sources is the legal source of political authority? According to Weber, the power legitimized by laws, written rules and regulations is called rational-legal authority. In this kind of authority, the power lies in a particular reason, system, or ideology, and not necessarily in the person who implements the details of that doctrine. In rational and legal authority, the power of influence does not belong to individuals themselves, but to specific and structured bureaucratic functions, and people in certain positions have the power to act on behalf of these positions. A nation that follows a constitution applies this kind of authority. On a smaller scale, you can encounter rational and legal authority in the workplace by knowing the standards set out in the employee handbook, which give the employee a different type of authority than the boss. Modern technology has facilitated the implementation of such forms of nonviolent reform. Today, protesters can use mobile phones and the Internet to disseminate information and plans quickly and effectively to the masses of protesters. During the Arab Spring uprisings, for example, Twitter feeds and other social media helped protesters coordinate their movements, exchange ideas and morale, as well as build global support for their causes. Social media also played an important role in accurate coverage of protests around the world, unlike many previous situations where state control over the media censored reporting.
Note that in these examples, the users of power were citizens rather than governments. They discovered that they had power because they were able to exert their will over their own leaders. Therefore, governmental power is not necessarily synonymous with absolute power. Traditional authority can be closely related to race, class, and gender. In most societies, for example, men are more privileged than women and are therefore more likely to hold positions of authority. It is not uncommon for a man to be the automatic head of a family unit; In some countries, however, it is the woman who is the alleged perpetrator.
