Max Weber’s Three Types of Authority: A Sociological Analysis
Max Weber’s Three Types of Authority
Max Weber, a prominent sociologist, proposed a theory of authority encompassing three distinct types. He studied how authority is legitimized as a belief system. Weber’s three types of authority are traditional, charismatic, and legal-rational authority.
Traditional Authority
Traditional authority is legitimized by the sanctity of tradition. The ability and right to rule is passed on from one person to another. It does not change over time, does not facilitate social change, is irrational and inconsistent, and perpetuates the status quo. In a purely patriarchal structure, “the servants are completely and personally dependent upon the lord,” while in an estate system (feudalism), “the servants are not personal servants of the lord but independent men.” But, in both cases, the system of authority does not change or evolve.
Charismatic Authority
Charismatic authority is found in a leader whose mission and vision inspire others. It is based upon amazing characteristics of an individual. Weber saw a great leader as the head of a new social movement, with divine or supernatural powers. Weber seemed to favor charismatic authority and spent a good deal of time discussing it.
Legal-Rational Authority
Legal-rational authority is empowered by a formalistic belief in the content of the law (legal) or natural law (rationality). Obedience is not given to a specific individual leader – whether traditional or charismatic – but to a set of uniform principles. Weber thought the best example of legal-rational authority was a bureaucracy (political or economic). This form of authority is frequently found in the modern state, city governments, private and public corporations, and various voluntary associations. In fact, Weber stated that the “development of the modern state is identical indeed with that of modern officialdom and bureaucratic organizations just as the development of modern capitalism is identical with the increasing bureaucratization of economic enterprise.
Authority and Inequality
Weber’s three types of authority match up to his three categories of inequality: class, status groups, and parties. Traditional authority is the basis for status groups. Charismatic authority can be the outcome of class. Parties are the codification of legal-rational authority, especially in the case of bureaucracies.
Law and Economic Structure
The economic structure of a given society is determined by the law that exists there; however, law may also be considered to be determined by the economic structure – the two are therefore necessarily connected.
Germanic Law and Capitalism
In Weber’s view, the Germanic law is the successor to the Roman law. As a result, he attributes the imminent rise of capitalism to the adoption of Germanic law as a replacement of Roman law. This early work of Weber does not yet present a fully developed version of the dialectical sociology of law but will eventually develop into it.
Ideology and Law
The adoption of a capitalist system may not be attributed to factors of economics or law on their own, rather, to both simultaneously. Weber does not fail to address the importance of ideology in the construction of law, as he discusses the effect of ideology on economic structures and changes.
Weber’s Sociological Explanation of Law
Weber’s sociological explanation of law goes beyond economics as he recognizes and understands the ideological foundations of the rise of capitalism.