Authority

thumb|upright=0.9|The frontispiece of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan (1651), depicting the Sovereign as a massive body wielding a [[sword and crosier and composed of many individual people]]

Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and the rule of law. Authoritarian regimes may be either autocratic or oligarchic and may be based upon the rule of a party, the military, or the concentration of power in a single person. States that have a blurred boundary between democracy and authoritarianism have sometimes been characterized as "hybrid democracies", "hybrid regimes" or "competitive authoritaria

Autocracy is a form of government in which absolute power is held by one person, known as an autocrat. It includes both absolute monarchies and dictatorships, while it is contrasted with democracy and other forms of free government. The autocrat has total control over the exercise of civil liberties within the autocracy, choosing under what circumstances they may be exercised, if at all. Governments may also blend elements of autocracy and democracy, forming a mixed type of regime sometimes referred to as anocracy, hybrid regime, or electoral autocracy. The concept of autocracy has been recogn

thumb|The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial authority in the country Authority is commonly understood as the legitimate power of a person or group over other people.

right and acceptance of an authority

Obedience, in human behavior, is a form of "social influence in which a person yields to explicit instructions or orders from an authority figure". Obedience is generally distinguished from compliance, which some authors define as behavior influenced by peers while others use it as a more general term for positive responses to another individual's request, and from conformity, which is behavior intended to match that of the majority. Depending on context, obedience can be seen as moral, immoral, or amoral. For example, in psychological research, individuals are usually confronted with immoral

a form of defeasible argument in which a claimed authority's support is used as evidence for an argument's conclusion

asymmetric, hierarchical social relationship

Coercion involves compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner through the use of threats, including threats to use force against that party. It involves a set of forceful actions which violate the free will of an individual in order to induce a desired response. These actions may include extortion, blackmail, or even torture and sexual assault. Common-law systems recognize duress as a defense to criminal liability when an individual commits an offense under coercion.

Authorization or authorisation (see spelling differences), in information security, computer security and IAM (Identity and Access Management), is the function of specifying rights/privileges for accessing resources, in most cases through an access policy, and then deciding whether a particular subject has privilege to access a particular resource. Examples of subjects include human users, computer software and other hardware on the computer. Examples of resources include individual files or an item's data, computer programs, computer devices and functionality provided by computer applications

Anti-authoritarianism is opposition to authoritarianism. Anti-authoritarians usually believe in full equality before the law and strong civil liberties.

type of organization or leadership where authority is derived from the charisma of the leader

assertion without proof

Name-dropping (or name-checking) is the practice of naming or alluding to important people or institutions in order to indicate one's association with them. The term often connotes an attempt to impress others; it is usually regarded negatively, and under certain circumstances may constitute a breach of professional ethics. It may be done within a conversation, a story, a song, an online identity, or other communication.

collection of all the works of one artist, writer, scientist, musician, group, etc.

behavior in which a service animal disobeys a disabled owner’s instructions if it judges this to be safer—e.g. when a blind owner wants to cross a street but it is dangerous

phrase

form of leadership in which the authority of an organization or a ruling regime is largely tied to tradition or custom

cognitive bias

decline in the confidence of administrative functions, institutions, or leadership

form of leadership in which the authority of an organization or a ruling regime is largely tied to legal rationality, legal legitimacy and bureaucracy

M. Weber’s classification of authority into charismatic, traditional, and legal types

The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean 'according to the canon' the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, canonical example is often used to mean 'archetype'.