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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Concept of Authority

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description

There is a general agreement that the concept of practical authority can be analysed as a right to impose obligations or commands on its subject and that this right is correlated with a duty to obey. Usually it is also implied that these rights and duties are mutually recognized. Thus authority is considered as a consensus-based notion. But it is important to notice that political authorities can have other functions, too. They can change the normative positions of their subjects by permitting, authorizing, delegating, exercising a veto, by declaring acts valid or invalid, etc. They can create and change definition rules, e.g. determine the values of units of payment. They are often authorized to speak on behalf of a group or organization and to express shared beliefs, opinions or intentions. They may be entitled to interpret, comment and criticize rules made by others and to suggest new rules without having the final say. None of these functions can be reduced to the command-obedience model.