Abstract

The thirteen essays of this collection converge on the theme of authority in an effort to analyze its general theoretical characteristics, to evaluate its historical development, and to propose solutions to contemporary social, political, and legal problems. Hannah Arendt's contribution, "What was Authority?" best expresses the awareness, reflected in several of the other essays, of a crisis in the understanding and acceptance of authority as a significant concept in political theory; and Carl J. Friedrich and Bertrand de Jouvenel provide perceptive constructive attempts to grasp the nature of authority.--J. F. D.