This can be done in the form of sentences, but a more useful way is a
short structure of notes that allows you to capture your ideas effec-
tively and follow your train of thoughts quickly. Something like the
structure shown on p.19 would be a useful way of outlining the central
implications of the question, which you can then follow up in your
research and, later, in the essay. If you find any of the abbreviations
in these notes mystifying, you can find the meaning of them in
Chapter 14.Answer
Clearly in this question the key concepts that have to be examined are
‘power ’ and ‘authority’, and the relationship between them. Start, then,
by asking yourself how you use these words. For this you need to
summon up a few examples of situations in which both of these con-
cepts might come up. These might involve figures of authority,
like police officers, teachers, parents and other people who have the
power and influence to get you to do what you might not otherwise
want to do.
From these examples you might conclude that the most obvious
way in which we use the word ‘power ’ is to describe somebody as
having force, the capacity to compel us to do something against our
wishes. A police officer has this sort of power, or a mugger, if he
possesses a weapon with which to threaten us. But we also use it
in the phrase ‘the power of persuasion’, in which the force involved is
the force of an argument or the ability to persuade us to do something
we would not otherwise do, by giving us good and persuasive reasons
for doing it.
If the concept of power breaks down in this sort of way, then that of
authority probably does too. We talk about somebody being inauthor-
ity, somebody like a police officer or a judge. In this case we might
not respect the person or the reasons they may give us for doing as
they demand, but we might respect the institution they represent, or
we might just comply with their orders because we fear the conse-
quences of not doing so. Police officers have powers at their disposal
that can seriously affect us, even denying us our liberty.
And, of course, there are others, like a mugger or a local gang leader,
who can also compel us to do things, through force or threats of force,
but who have no authority, although they still have this sort of power.
This leads us to the conclusion that authority doesn’t simply amount
to the possession of power alone: the gang leader has no authority,
in the usual sense, to command us to do anything, unlike the police18 Interpretation of the QuestionHTW2 7/26/01 8:43 PM Page 18