Tentative Answer - Weber's Elements of Legitimacy

4. Weber makes a distinction between various types of ‘legitimacy’ (beliefs that justify a leader’s authority in the minds of the led). They were ‘traditional’, ‘charismatic’ and ‘rational-legal’. How would you apply this typology to contemporary leaders? Whom do you think Weber would call ‘charismatic’ today.

Weber's three distinct forms of legitimacy with regard to authority bring to mind three very different kinds of leaders. First, Weber's traditional authority, authority that is legitimized because "it has always existed, etc.," points to a leader like the Queen of England (or the royal family as a whole). While they have no true political authority in the current system of progressive democratic government because they are the remnants of a monarchial system that was dissolved, they still have traditional authority in that people look to them because "they have always been there" are the royal family. People accept the Queen and the royal family because it carries the tradition of authority.

Charismatic authority, as Weber puts it, applies to individuals who convince their followers to follow them because of some amount of personal charisma, rather than traditional or legal structures that legitimize their authority. This, really, applies to leaders such as demagogues and populist leaders; they apply their ability to rally the masses to their cause (or to them as individuals) in order to gain a following that legitimizes their authority simply because of the numbers. Weber would point to a leader such as Trump or a cult leader as example of charismatic leadership that was legitimized by such charisma.

Finally, Weber's example of rational-legal authority and legitimacy is based on legal rules and systems put in place through what we call government - this is the most structured form of legitimacy, in that we can point to exactly why a leader has authority because of such legal structures. A leader such as this would be someone who holds the office of President of the United States; through an election process, the President was elected and given legitimized authority because of the country's republican government system that is in place.