Q.What is authority and how is it related to domination and the law?

A central puzzle behind the idea of authority is why some relationships of unequal power run smoothly, without constant resistance, while raw force alone tends to be unstable and costly to sustain. The sociological answer starts with the concept of legitimacy: legitimacy is the degree of acceptance built into a power relationship -- something is legitimate when it is accepted as proper, just, and fitting, effectively part of the prevailing social contract. Power in itself is simply a fact; it becomes authority, in Max Weber's well-known formulation, only once it is legitimate -- that is, once it is widely regarded as justified rather than merely imposed.

Authority in this sense is always bounded, tied to a specific, defined domain rather than being a general licence to command. A police officer, a judge, and a school teacher each hold real authority, but only within the particular jurisdiction their role covers. A judge's authority operates inside the courtroom; outside it, she is an ordinary citizen who must, like anyone else, defer to the lawful authority of a police officer on the street. A police officer's authority covers the public conduct of citizens while on duty, but does not extend to their private, lawful activities. A teacher's authority governs the classroom, but stops at the boundary of a pupil's home, where parents or guardians hold primary authority instead. This bounded, role-specific quality is part of what distinguishes formal authority from raw domination -- it comes with built-in limits that both the authority-holder and those under it generally recognise. …