Authors: Bobbio, Matteucci, Pasquino
Summary: This 4,852-word entry treats authority as stabilized power, authority as legitimate power, and the ambiguity of authority. The entry begins by considering the difference between power and authority. Authority is defined as a relation of stabilized power, in which a subordinate unquestioningly obeys a superior. Thus authority is quite distinct from persuasion.
Turning to the connection between authority and legitimacy, the entry notes that authority as legitimate power presupposes a positive judgment of power. That is, the exercise of power has to be considered legitimate by the affected individuals. Legitimacy generally refers to the source of power. Belief in the legitimacy of power confers efficacy and stability upon authority.
The entry closes by considering the ambiguity of authority, for instance when violence is used to exercise power, or when the belief in legitimacy has an overtly ideological cast. The ambiguity of authority is also shown when the authority figure lacks effective power, or when subordinates do not believe in the legitimacy of the authority. When belief in the legitimacy of power flags, authority may become authoritarianism--that is, a relation in which decisions are imposed from above without any form of consent on the part of subordinates.