Coercion and legitimacy as sources of power and crisis in autocratic, authoritarian and liberal-democratic leadership: a four-dimensional power analysis

This constitutes an original account of autocracy, authoritarianism and liberal-democracy. We explore autocratic, authoritarian and liberal-democratic leadership, as phenomena of coercion and legitimacy, analysed along four dimensions of power. Autocratic leadership is theorized as a product of coercion. Following Weber, both authoritarianism and liberal-democracy are based upon a belief in legitimate authority. Legitimacy is both a sociological and a normative phenomenon. Authority and liberal democracy are both sociologically legitimate, while only liberal democracy is normatively legitimate. Authoritarianism involves manipulation of responders along the third and fourth dimensions of power. In contrast, liberal-democracy entails justification and accountability along those same dimensions.