Yesterday in Sunday
school we discussed what is essential for authority to be perceived as
legitimate. The perception of authority is
strongly tied to emotions. That is, we
feel emotionally rebellious if we perceive that an authority over us is illegitimate.
What makes for feelings of legitimacy in power?
The one essential is that we perceive the authority figure over us is seeking
to empower us—in this way seeking to share power. For example, a boss that rides his employees
violates this principle. On the other
hand, a boss that affirms it says such things as the following: “You need to complete this task sometime this
week.” This shares power for it is
empowering the employee to have some say over his own schedule (“I will get to
it on Wednesday when it best fits into my schedule.”) An example of the contrary is authority at an
assisted living facility that says (in so many words) to a resident “You will
eat (or shower, or whatever else) whenever I damn well please and not until.” This hoards power and is viewed as
inconsiderate and illegitimate. It says
to the resident “I really don’t care about you at all. I only care about myself—and this at your
expense.” (A fundamental technique of
torture interrogation is to exercise absolute control over the detainee.) Legitimate authority always seeks to share and
empower others. One major factor that
the U.S. Government maintains an air of legitimacy to its citizenry is the empowerment
embodied in the Bill of Rights. It makes
it clear that a fundamental purpose of the government is to secure, share, and
protect the power of its citizens. An oft used phrase that encapsulates this is
“servant leadership.” The servant leader
is one who serves up and shares power with those under him. This is viewed not as a gift, but a right—a very
profound thing in itself. (The follower
in this case makes it clear that by choice he accedes to the leadership of
another.) Even though we may not be able
to adequately detail the “whys” of this equation of power, we know that it is fundamentally
essential to a perception of legitimacy and feelings of contentment and
happiness.
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