Max Weber's Definition Of Political Authority

One of the fundamental questions in political philosophy is what political authority is and when is political authority legitimate. The exercise of authority is a constant phenomenon in every human society or settlement. Human society maintains and organises itself when authority is placed as the foundation upon which such society is rested. It will be worthy to note that every association in society whether temporal or permanent, small or big has its own structure of authority and thus, it will be wrong to assume that authority is purely a political phenomenon. It is simply the right to give orders or command to others who then see it as a duty to obey such order or command. According to Max Weber, (1958:3) a German Sociologist in his writings on the concept of authority defined authority as the right to command. Thus Authority could be definable as that form of power which orders or articulates the actions of other actors through commands which could be said to be effective because those who are being commanded regard the commands as legitimate. Weber (1958:4) also identified three sources of authority which are Charismatic Authority, Traditional Authority and Legal-Rational Authority.
Charismatic authority which is the first classification of authority as defined by Max Weber is “the resting on the exceptional sanctity, heroism or exemplary character of an individual person and of the normative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him.” (Weber 1958:3) This then