ABSTRACT
“Power” is the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability rests. Experience shows that in no instance does domination voluntarily limit itself to the appeal to material or affectual or ideal motives as a basis for its continuance. There are three pure types of legitimate domination. The validity of the claims to legitimacy may be based on: rational grounds, traditional grounds and charismatic grounds. Legal authority rests on the acceptance of the validity of the following mutually inter-dependent ideas. Authority will be called traditional if legitimacy is claimed for it and believed in by virtue of the sanctity of age-old rules and powers. The social relationships directly involved are strictly personal, based on the validity and practice of charismatic personal qualities.
