Weber's Theory Of Power Rhetorical Analysis

All throughout history, humans have been infatuated with power. People gaining power, people taking power, and people looking for more power. In Latin there are 25 different words used to describe different kinds of power that existed in their world. Each of these words in themselves has a definition of the kind of power they describe. Power is one of the most sought after things in the world and yet the exact definition seems unclear as it has many meanings. This is because power is largely contextual. If two men were holding a rope and one of them was very muscular and the other scrawnier than if asked, a typical person would say the more muscular man is more powerful. In the same situation if the muscular man was holding a mop and the scrawny …show more content…
Weber saw authority as existing in three types. He identified rational/Legal, traditional, and charismatic as the three types of authority. (A&E, P168) He described the three as follows. Rational/Legal is described as a form of leadership in which the authority of an organization is tied to legal rationality. Traditional authority rests on established beliefs and continues those beliefs because they already exist. Lastly Charismatic authority is a form of leadership where authority is derived from the exemplary characteristics of the individual and personal trust in his revelation. All of these types of authority established by Weber inherently gives whoever has these authorities power. All of these types of authority will cause people to do things even if they oppose. This is consistent with his definition of power. To further understand Weber’s idea of power we can see how some power comes from political communities. He identifies economic class, status groups, and political parties as the three political communities. (A&E, P159) It is at the beginning of this essay on political communities that Weber gives his definition of power as being able to realize one’s own will at the resistance of others. Showing that he sees political communities as somehow connected with power. He believes power may be exercised for economic gain, to increase one’s status, or simply for the sake of exercising power. (A&E, P159) Weber says that the structure of any legal order directly influences the distribution of power economic or otherwise. From this statement it is clear that Weber acknowledges at least two types of power, one of which he mentions is economic