Weber's Types of Authority

Weber's Types of Authority

Weber argues that there are three types of power domination- rational grounds, traditional grounds and charismatic grounds. I feel those can be applied to family power relationships as well. We can still see family which are structured on traditional grounds in many cultures, where the father has absolute power because he is a man and due to traditional gender rules, he should be the power center of the family. I can think of some cases of family based on charismatic grounds in the media. In this case, the man's heroism attracts the woman and that is the reason that he can make the woman listen to him. Legal rules do not give standards of who should have more power in the family, so maybe the rational grounds does not apply to family power relationships directly. However, the legal rights elect people of more skills and talents to run the power. This idea of meritocracy applies to liberal family in modern setting, where the couple discuss and elect the more competent one to finish certain tasks, such as filing taxes or driving. Do you have other interesting examples of different types of authority, based on Weber's ideas?

MiaotingMa (talk)04:38, 24 November 2016