Rational-legal authority Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Rational-legal authority (also known as rational authority, legal authority, rational domination, legal domination) is a form of leadership in which the authority of an organization or a ruling regime is largely tied to legal rationality, legal legitimacy and bureaucracy. The majority of the modern states of the twentieth century are rational-legal authorities, according to those who use this form of classification.
In sociology, the concept of rational-legal domination comes from Max Weber's tripartite classification of authority (one of several classifications of government, used by sociologists); the other two forms being traditional authority and charismatic authority. All of those three domination types represent an example of his ideal type concept. Weber noted that it in history those ideal types of domination are always found in combinations.
In traditional authority, the legitimacy of the authority comes from tradition. Charismatic authority is legitimized by the personality and leadership qualities of the ruling individual. Finally, rational-legal authority derives its powers from the system of bureaucracy and legality.
In the modern state, people (and legal practitioners) attribute legitimacy to a legal order insofar as its laws have been enacted (this concept of legal authority and its legitmacy should be understood in the light of arguments of the natural law and legal positivism).
Weber defined legal order as a system where the rules are implemented and obeyed in the belief that they are legitimate because they conform with the statuses of a government that monopolizes their enactment and the legitimate use of physical force.
Weber wrote that the distinctively rational characteristics of the state emerged from the patrimonial and feudal struggle for power that can be found only in Western civilisation. The prerequisites for the modern Western state are:
According to Weber a modern state exists where a political community possesses the following characteristics:
Vast majority of the modern states from the XX century onward fall under the rational-legal authority cathegory.
Majority of modern politicians represent this type of authority.
Weber distinguished between bureaucratic officials and political leaders.
An official must exercise his judgment and his skills, but his duty is to place these at the service of a higher authority; ultimately he is responsible only for the impartial execution of assigned tasks and must sacrifice his personal judgment if it runs counter to his official duties.
Other qualities of an official:
Rational-legal authority in sociology
Legal rationality and legitimacy
Emergence of the modern state
* centrally directed and permanent system of taxation
Weber argued that some of those attributes have existed in various time or places, but combined they have emerged only in the Occidental civilisation. The conditions that favoured this were:
* development of the money economy, where officials are compensated in money instead of kind (usually land grants)
Modern state - bureaucracy and politics
An important attrubute of Weber's modern state definition was the fact that it is a bureaucracy - please see that article for the description of bureaucracy ideal type.Rational-legal leaders
A politician must demonstrate his capacity for independent action, for which he alone is responsible. Partisanship is important to him, he must reject the responsibility for public actions that conflict with his basic policy. He should have a charismatic appeal to win elections under conditions of universal suffrage.