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In government, authority is often used interchangeably with the term "power". However, their meanings differ: while "power" refers to the ability to achieve certain ends, "authority" refers to a claim of legitimacy, the justification and right to exercise that power. For example, whilst a mob has the power to punish a criminal, such as through lynching, many people consider only the courts to have the authority to order capital punishment.
The word authority derives from the Latin word "auctoritas", used in Roman law as opposed to potestas and imperium. According to Giorgio Agamben (2005), "auctoritas has nothing to do with magistrates or the people's potestas or imperium. The Senator… is not a magistrate".
Since the emergence of the social sciences, authority has been a subject of research in a variety of empirical settings; the family (parental authority), small groups (informal authority of leadership), intermediate organizations, such as schools, churches, armies, industries and bureaucracies (organizational and bureaucratic authorities) and society-wide or inclusive organizations, ranging from the most primitive tribal society to the modern nation-state and intermediate organization (political authority).
The jurisdiction of political authority, the location of sovereignty, the balancing of freedom and authority (cf. Cristi, 2005) and the requirements of political obligations have been core questions, for political philosophers, from Plato and Aristotle, to the present.
"The phenomenon called authority is at once more ancient and more fundamental than the phenomenon called state; the natural ascendancy of some men over others is the principle of all human organizations and all human advances."
Most major religious groups have always considered God as the supreme authority. The religious texts have considered God to have an authority and wisdom, that is infinitely superior to any human authority or wisdom. The source or reason, behind this authority, usually involves tremendous power and compassion, along with primacy in the physical and spiritual realms. That, which is divine, is usually thought of as the creator and therefore, superior to ordinary creatures.
Max Weber, in his sociological work, identified and distinguished three types of legitimate domination (Herrschaft in German, which generally means 'domination' or 'rule'), that have sometimes been rendered in English translation as types of authority, because domination isn't seen as a political concept in the first place. Weber defined domination (authority) as the chance of commands being obeyed by a specifiable group of people. Legitimate authority is that which is recognized as legitimate and justified by both the ruler and the ruled.
Weber divided legitimate authority into three types:
History has witnessed several social movements or revolutions, against a system of traditional or legal-rational authority, which are usually started by Charismatic authorities. What distinguishes authority, from coercion, force and power on the one hand and leadership, persuasion and influence on the other hand, is legitimacy. Superiors feel that they have a right to issue commands; subordinates perceive an obligation to obey. Social scientists agree that authority is but one of several resources available, to incumbents in formal positions. For example, a Head of State is dependent upon a similar nesting of authority. His legitimacy must be acknowledged, not just by citizens, but by those who control other valued resources: his immediate staff, his cabinet, military leaders and in the long run, the administration and political apparatus of the entire society.
Every state has a number of institutions which exercise authority based on longstanding practices. In India, the British created the institution of the Civil Service, which is still in place after 150 years. The Armed Forces of India is another institution which is subordinate to the government but is a very old and prominent institution. Apart from this, every state sets up agencies which are competent in dealing with one particular matter. All this is set up within its charter. One example can be that of a port authority like the Port of London. They are usually created by special legislation and are run by a board of directors. Several agencies and institutions are also created along the same lines and they exercise autonomy in certain matters. They are also usually required to be self-supporting through property taxes or other forms of collection or fees for services.
The use of authority by contemporary social scientists is not dispute free. According to Michaels, in the Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, authority is the capacity, innate or acquired for exercising ascendancy over a group. But Kiersten's argues that authority is not a capacity, it is a relationship. It is sanctioned power, institutionalized power. According to La swell and Kaplan, authority is formal power. But Friedrich rejected their definition and defined authority as the quality of a communication which is capable of reasoned elaboration. La swell and Kaplan believed that power is a form of influence whereas Friedrich maintained that influence is a kind of power, indirect and unstructured. According to him, it seems of limited value to pursue a definition of authority as a special case of power or influence.
The jurisdiction of political authority is widely discussed in democractic societies, including the United States. The current Iraq war is a pertinent example of this. Because the Founding Fathers intended a system of checks and balances which ideally limits concentration of power in any one of the three branches, there is an ongoing discussion in U.S. politics regarding the legitimate extent of governmental authority in general. While there has been an ongoing trend toward consolidation of power in the federal government, and in the executive branch in particular, many critics argue that the Founders intended a system which afforded the populace with as much freedom as reasonable, and that government should limit its authority accordingly.
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