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Power is the ability, whether personal or social, to get things done — either to enforce one’s own will or to enforce the collective will of some group over others. Legitimacy is a socially constructed and psychologically accepted right to exercise power. A person can have legitimacy but no actual power (the legitimate king might reside in exile, destitute and forgotten). A person can have actual power but not legitimacy (the usurper who exiled the king and appropriates the symbols of office). Authority, on the other hand, is subjective; it depends upon an individual’s perception of its rightness. Authority is defined as rightful power, or legitimate power. In terms of our political lives, the president of the United States and his administration command authority, or rightful, legitimate power, for at least a critical mass or majority of American citizens.
