Towards a New Conceptual Framework for Studying Administrative Authority

Abstract

The influence of civil servants upon policy making has increased substantially in the course of the twentieth century and this influence is no longer limited to senior level officials. Surprisingly, the study of administrative authority has dwindled to almost nothing, focusing on very specific aspects instead of the phenomenon in all its manifestations. This emphasis in the last sentence indicates that authority is generally considered as a single concept. We will show that it really is a compound concept. In this article we categorize existing meanings of authority into four main categories: property, place, people, and process. Each of these categories are analyzed in terms of their time of origin, their content, and their main authors. The most recent of these four categories is authority as process. This last one is vital to understanding the fundamentally negotiable nature of authority and the authoritative in contemporary society. The article concludes with a theoretical framework for future analysis of administrative authority.

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