Where power is the legal, official authority, or influence over others, authority is the moral, legal right, or ability to control. Steven Lukes and Max Weber provide interesting ideas into power and authority.
Steven Lukes wrote about 3 dimensions of power: issue, agenda, and manipulation. ‘Issue’ is about a person winning an argument having the power, ‘agenda’ is having the power to dictate a situation, and ‘manipulation’ is controlling what people think by being ‘right’ through covert methods (Cook, 2011). There are some problems with using ‘issue’ as a person cannot always be made to do something through force, however, when it works correctly, it is a good way to influence people to do what you want them to. Using ‘agenda’ allows a person to gain a lot of information for a wide variety of sources, but sometimes these sources can be unreliable. A good example of this can be when information is gathered from the internet or social media as information can be manipulated easily on these platforms. ‘Manipulation’ can be used to gain voter approval by aiming campaigns at specific target groups, such as the uneducated, and tailoring any campaigning to rouse them to your cause, this may not work for everyone in the target group. A good example of a politician using a manipulation tactic would be Donald Trump.
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Max Weber wrote about 3 dimensions of authority: traditional, rational legal, and charismatic. Traditional authority can be enjoyed by a person for a couple of reasons: the first was an inheritance, and the second for more religious reasons. Traditional authority is given to individuals without regard to their qualifications or skills as it is passed down through their bloodline or supposed divine designation. Rational legal authority is based in customs, tradition, and the rules and laws of a society. This type of authority is an example of a modern democracy as the power is given to the people through voting and the rules being written into a constitution. Charismatic authority comes from a person’s qualities and abilities to draw people to them. These people can exercise control over a particular group of people through their calls for action. Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump are good examples of charismatic leaders. While these leaders start out extremely popular, they do not often stay in power for long due to their political views (Maboloc, C., R. 2021).
Lukes and Weber both give good ideas at what power and authority are and how they fit into society. While they do talk about different types of power, it can be argued that their theories are not applicable in the 21st century, instead they fit better to the time when Lukes and Weber wrote them.
References
- Cambridge Dictionary. (2021). ‘Authority Definition’. Available: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/authority Last accessed 15/05/2021.
- Cook, S.. (2011). ‘Lukes’ 3 Faces of Power'. Available: https://revisesociology.wordpress.com/201110132/lukes-3-faces-of-power Last accessed 15/05/2021.
- Little, D.. (2010). ‘Lukes on Power’. Available: https://understandingsociety.blogspot.com/201010/lukes-on-power.html Last accessed 16/05/2021.
- Maboloc, C., R.. (2021). ‘Max Weber’s 3 Types of Authority'. Available: https://opinion.inquirer.net/85293/max-webers-3-types-of-authority Last accessed 15/05/2021.
- Merriam Webster. (2021). ‘Power Definition’. Available: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/power Last accessed 15/05/2021.
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