Authors: Bogdanor
Summary: In slightly less than 800 words, this entry describes the meaning of authority, discusses its etymological history, distinguishes the concept from power, and concludes with a glimpse at contemporary political scientific approaches to understanding authority.
Without offering its own definition, the entry describes authority as a characteristic present in individuals who ought to be obeyed under particular conditions. Similarly, there are rules which ought to be obeyed as well, and these rules are laws. Such rules become authorized as law because they are produced through a recognized process.
The term authority, derived from Latin, has imbued medieval and modern European politics with an ancient Roman conception of the nature and limits of government. In modern Europe, state authority was seen as supremely possessed by whoever was sovereign. First thought to be the result of divine right, authority evolved into a quality earned by age or experience. The contemporary understanding of authority is that it can only be conferred on a leader by the people working through an electoral process.
Authority is a concept distinct from power. Thomas Hobbes laid out the modern theory of authority in the Leviathan. The entry briefly summarizes Hobbes' theory and highlights a significant point: Hobbes derived authority from the people themselves rather than from God. Locke and Rousseau reconceptualized some of Hobbes' ideas in more democratic ways, paving the way for contemporary forms of government.
Modern political scientists approach the interpretation and analysis of authority from a different perspective. The relationship between patterns of authority and forms of government have been particularly significant for these scholars. The entry points out Almond and Verba's work as an important example in the area of political culture.