Authority

Robert MacIver suggests that power and authority of government are often indistinguishable, with authority being often defined as power—“the power to command obedience” (1947, 82). He expands the distinction between power and authority as follows:

By authority, we mean the established right, within any social order, to determine policies, to pronounce judgments on relevant issues, and to settle controversies, or, more broadly, to act as leader or guide to other men. When we speak of an authority we mean a person or body of persons possessed of this right. The accent is primarily on right, not power. Power alone has no legitimacy, no mandate, no office. Even the most ruthless tyrant gets nowhere unless he can clothe himself with authority. (83)

Robert Dahl articulated the basic notion of political power. He argues that “power terms in modern social science refer to subsets of relations among social units such that the behavior of one or more units (the response units, R) depend in some circumstances on the behavior of other units (the controlling units, C)” (1968, 407). Dahl contends that power is a behavioral phenomenon in which the causal relation is the closest equivalent to the power relation. He argues that “for the assertion ‘C has power over R,’ one can substitute the assertion, ‘C’s behavior causes R’s behavior’ ” (410). Elaborating, Dahl suggests that “If one can define the causal relation, one can define influence, power, or authority, or vice versa” (410).

Nelson Polsby argues that this power relationship can be examined by looking at “who participates, who gains and loses, and who prevails in decision-making” (1963, 55). John Gaventa adds that the key to understanding this decisional power, which he labels as a “one-dimensional approach to the study of power,” is behavior—the act of doing and participating in the decision process (1980, 5). Polsby observes that people participate in the political decision process on issues that they care about and that the claims of even small minorities will be recognized and acted upon in a highly fragmented political system (1963, 118). The next section examines the behavioral aspects of power.