The influential sociologist Max Weber proposed a theory of authority that included three types. He pioneered a path towards understanding how authority is legitimated as a belief system. There are two fundamental components of order, norms and authority. As such, many examples of the following authority types may overlap. Traditional authority is legitimated by the sanctity of tradition. The ability and right to rule is passed down, often through heredity.
Weber’s theory of domination and post-communist capitalisms
Max Weber: Traditional, Legal-Rational, and Charismatic Authority
In sociology , authority is the legitimate power which one person or a group possesses and practices over another. The element of legitimacy is vital to the notion of authority and is the main means by which authority is distinguished from the more general concept of power. Power can be exerted by the use of force or violence. Authority, by contrast, depends on the acceptance by subordinates of the right of those above them to give them orders or directives. The types of political authority were first defined by Max Weber in his essay " Politics as a Vocation " and his other writings in —
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Arguably the foremost social theorist of the twentieth century, Max Weber is known as a principal architect of modern social science along with Karl Marx and Emil Durkheim. His methodological writings were instrumental in establishing the self-identity of modern social science as a distinct field of inquiry; he is still claimed as the source of inspiration by empirical positivists and their hermeneutic detractors alike. Together, these two theses helped launch his reputation as one of the founding theorists of modernity.