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"I have as much authority as the
Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it.”
- George Carlin
Definition of Authority from
www.m-w.com (Merriam -Webster)
1a (1): a citation
(as from a book or file) used in defense or support (2):
the source from which the citation is drawn b (1):
a conclusive statement or set of statements (as an official
decision of a court) (2): a decision taken as a
precedent (3):
testimony c: an individual cited or appealed
to as an expert.
2a: power to
influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior b:
freedom granted by one in authority :
right
3a: persons in
command; specifically:
government b: a governmental agency or
corporation to administer a revenue-producing public
enterprise <the transit authority>
4a:
grounds,
warrant <had excellent authority for believing the
claim> b: convincing force <lent authority
to the performance> .
Authority is, like the quote from
Carlin suggests, a conferred entity.
I include authority as part of a
quadrant of conditional tensions that exist as a model of
PAAR, as in a metaphorical "par" for a hole of golf,
having a particular set of attributes that call for
perspectives about how to approach success.
Authority,
along with
Power,
Accountability, and
Responsibility are all interlinked elements of success
requirements.
Authority, could be compared to
"authoring" ability that is granted to someone, or something
to author a rule, procedure, or allocate a resource to a
situation, which by and of this "granted" authority is
possible. It becomes a way in which for people who
confer the authority and are bound by it to function without
having to question every part of the equation where authority,
or authoring occurs.
Example:
In
government, the term authority is often used
interchangeably with
power. However, their meanings differ: while
power is defined as "the ability to influence somebody to
do something that he/she would not have done", authority
refers to a claim of
legitimacy, the justification, and right to exercise that
power. For example, while a
mob
has the power to punish a criminal, for example by
lynching, people who believe in the
rule of law consider that only a
court of law has the authority to punish a criminal.
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