Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/435

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS.

Authority Its Origin, Establishment and Limits. i. The existence of Authority. Authority and anarchy represent the positive and negative poles of human association. Between these two extremes has oscillated the human race from its beginning. The transition from the wandering tribes without leadership to the civil- ized condition of more advanced peoples is the work of authority. Among these authorities I include not merely gods, leaders in war, chiefs, the oldest men of the group, the sachem, priest, and sorcerer, but especially the founders of religion (Con- fucius, Laotse, Zarathustra, Buddha, Moses) and lawgivers (Draco, Solon, Lycurgus), givers together with laws and institutions. Human civilization without these authorities is unthinkable. Without the control of the unbridled instincts and impulses of the individual there can be no order in society.

In the more primitive societies the rulers are tyrants, and control is through fear on the part of the subjects toward the ruler. With the development of a higher civilization follow more refined forms of authority. The second stage may be char- acterized as that of belief. In order that the subject may continue to be ruled by fear, the conditions must be such as to allow personal oversight by the ruler. Fear is a ruling motive only under the influence of the visible authority. With extension of the group comes the impossibility of direct oversight on the part of the ruler and fear gives place to a belief in the omnipresence of the unseen authority. Consequently, with the progress of civilization, the gods become more and more unseen beings, the kings more unapproachable, and institutions and laws more abstract. This middle stage of authority based upon belief characterized the patriarchal condition of church arid state up to the time of the French Revolution. Authority resting upon belief w& shaken by the revolution, and the third stage or modern period may be characterized by an authority based upon insight.

2. Origin of authority. The tendency to the constructing of authority may be traced back to the animal kingdom. Wherever in the struggle for existence there is need of a common activity, there arises the function of leadership. This tendency is found among the more primitive human societies, though in some cases it resolves itself into mere authority of the oldest men.

The races which remain in primitive anarchism do not have the capacity for taking on civilization. In the struggle for existence they are overcome by others which are under the dominion of authority, for discipline is the soul of struggle and authority is the soul of discipline. Races do not remain in the stage of anarchy because they lack intelligence, but rather they have not attained a higher intelligence because they have remained anarchical. Reason does not create the state, but, on the contrary, the state creates reason. Isolated or roaming peoples nowhere reach a high degree of civilization. It was in the cities, or rather city states, that a higher intellectual civili- zation was first produced. The close intermingling of men stimulates especially the mental qualities. It is in this way that the proposition is to be understood that the state forms reason. Without the building of the stale, without authorities, without a firm structure of superiority and subordination, we should not have passed beyond the stage of mere primitive life.

The principle of authority is permanent, but the motives upon which it is based change. The oriental ruler possesses absolute authority ; he is feared because the subject believes in his power. In the Middle Ages there is blind belief in gods and men. In the modern civilizations of western Europe and America authority in religion and state is based upon reason, intelligence, and insight.

3. The establishment of authority. There is no civilization historically known to us that does not have hierarchical divisions, superiority and subordination, organiza- tion by means of authority. The first ground of authority, therefore, lies in its natural

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