ABSTRACT
The New Machiavellians argue that natural elites, possessed of intellectual or psychological or other natural attributes, will come to hold power in society. Max Weber identifies four ideal-types of power/authority: traditional elite power/authority; charismatic elite power/authority; affective power/authority; and rational legal elite power/authority. Passive acquiescence is a familiar response to power and authority and it requires only passive acquiescence in the claims of the relevant elite; their ideas are neither accepted nor contested nor rejected, they are merely ignored so far as is possible as subordinate groups prefer get on with their everyday lives. Power and authority enable elites to shape the social world; the masses accommodate to these demands; and the social world functions. After decolonization, successor elites mixed Great Tradition ideas and borrowings from the modern world in the process of making new states, inventing nations and pursuing development.
