Educational scientist on authority: “Authoritarian behavior is always a sign of weakness”

taz: Mr. Reichenbach, is authority actually just bad?

Roland Reichenbach: Absolutely not. It is rightly criticized, but one should differentiate between the different concepts of authority. It is a phenomenon in people’s lives that exists anyway. No matter how you think about it.

taz: When is authority legitimate?

Reichenbach: The term Autoritas originally comes from antiquity and referred to the advice of the elders. Although he didn’t have the power to implement anything, he was like an advisor. Younger people should listen to him and, above all, pay attention to his experience. Authority is the recognition of others who have more knowledge and experience. First, it refers to a relationship in which one accepts the other and legitimizes authority in a certain area.

taz: Is authority something necessary or problematic?

Reichenbach: It is something necessary so that we can trust the people who should be credible and “recognize” their authority. It becomes problematic when recognition is no longer received. Then people generally become authoritarian. Authoritarian behavior is always a sign of weakness and is therefore problematic. When parents and superiors become authoritarian, children and employees no longer recognize them as a leadership authority.

taz: Why do people tend to submit to authorities even when they harm them?

Reichenbach: Unfortunately, the difference between being led and being seduced is not entirely clear. It seems a great need for authority otherwise the strong authoritarianism that prevails in this world would be difficult to understand. In politics and in a functioning democracy, authority is indispensable because the concepts are dependent on each other. The authoritarian behavior is, in turn, undemocratic. Because if, for example, the government becomes authoritarian, then it is afraid of its people and wants to establish recognition. But that doesn’t work because part of this positive recognition of authority has to be voluntary.

taz: For example?

I accept my doctor’s authority, but he cannot tell me other areas of how to live my life. In the case of our parents, it is due to evolution that we have the willingness to be guided from birth. We have to trust the experienced, otherwise we cannot survive.

taz: So authority is a form of social organization?

Reichenbach: Ultimately yes, but not led by individual people, but by the bureaucracy and the laws themselves subject to impersonal authorities us, whether we want to or not. However, impersonal authorities such as those of science, power or the media can also be problematic because they have a great impact. We have to tolerate these control systems and cannot influence them.

taz: How do you differentiate between authority and power?

Reichenbach: Power describes asymmetrical behavior because people are dependent on each other. You can’t say exactly where the power liesbecause ultimately parents are also dependent on the child and teachers are dependent on their students. Authority is the means by which this asymmetry appears legitimate.

taz: What misunderstandings about the term authority are most common?

Reichenbach: Die Crisis of authority in the modern world is that we assume an equality that does not exist. We are born asymmetrically and even if your employer says “We decided this together,” then this is untrue. You had to agree because you are an employee. Authority determines who must obey.