GOVT2112 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Charismatic Authority, Traditional Authority, Philistinism

• School: University of Sydney
• Department: Government and International Relations
• Course: GOVT2112
• Professor: All

Document Summary

Hence, "politics" for us means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state. A state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory. The state is a relation of men dominating men, a relation supported by means of legitimate (i. e. considered to be legitimate) violence. What are the ways in which political power may be made legitimate? (compare. Three inner justifications, hence basic legitimations of domination. First, the authority of the "eternal yesterday," i. e. of the mores sanctified through the unimaginably ancient recognition and habitual orientation to conform. This is "traditional" domination exercised by the patriarch and the patrimonial prince of yore. There is the authority of the extraordinary and personal gift of grace (charisma), the absolutely personal devotion and personal confidence in revelation, heroism, or other qualities of individual leadership.