6533b827fe1ef96bd12859ac

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Authority and Coordination

subject

description

There are many possible starting points for attempts to link authority with the coordination of human interactions: the most famous forerunner here is of course David Hume with his theory of justice. I will, however, start from a more recent classic. Herbert A. Simon’s Administrative Behaviour (1945, 2nd ed. 1957) includes an important theory for the role of authority. It is an obvious sign of the lack of communication between different branches and traditions in social theory that many jurists and political theorists emphasizing the coordinative functions of authority have paid no attention to Simon’s classical book.