Power and Domination to Rule Others

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             Authority legitimized on rational grounds rests, "on a belief in a legality of enacted rules and the right to those elevated to authority under such rules to issue commands." The order in question then consists in a body of generalized rules. These rules are universalistic in that they apply impartially to all persons. The fundamental authority source of authority in this type is, The authority of the impersonal order. That is, it extends to individuals in so far as they occupy a specifically legitimized status or role in a group. Even in that particular role, the individual can exert only a limited type of authority over another; that power which is allocated specifically to the role itself. Outside this status the individual is treated as 'private individual', with no more power than anybody else. There is therefore a separation between the sphere of office and that of private affairs.
             Where the rational-legal authority involves an organized administrative staff, according to Weber it takes the form of a 'bureaucratic' structure. Here each member of the staff occupies a position with a particular sphere of domination and a sharp segregation of his position from his private life. The different positions/roles within that structure, are organized in a hierarchy of higher or lower levels of authority. Each position is directly under the control of the position above it. The control of all offices, the individual above all the rest, hold his position by technical competence. Weber says that bureaucracy, is by far the most efficient instrument in large-scale administration and that several spheres of modern society have become dependent upon it. .
             Authority legitimized on traditional grounds is based on "an established belief in the sanctity of immemorial traditions and the legitimacy of those exercising authority under them." In contrast with the order involved in rational-legal authority, in which legal authority is 'imposed' or 'enacted' by a legitimate agency and procedure, this system of order is treated as having always existed and been binding.