In political theory and sociology it refers to the legitimacy (or not) of the use of power. If a particular power is perceived as legitimate and it has authority, then we accede to its demands without the need of coercion or threat. The analysis of authority was developed by the German sociologist Weber, Max, who was principally interested in the issue of how authority is obtained. Weber identified three kinds of authority: (i) rational-legal---government depends for its authority on the fact that laws have the appearance of necessity (e.g., it is rational to ban murder and so on); (ii) traditional authority---authority derives from long established customs, laws and practices, the sense that things have always been thus and should remain thus; (iii) charismatic authority---the authority an individual claims or derives from a higher power, such as destiny or God. Certeau, Michel de, in his analysis of May â68, argued that what the street protests indicated was that the government of the day had lost its authority, even though it had retained power. Similarly, ĆœiĆŸek, Slavoj has argued that the loss of authority is a precursor to the loss of power, as is evidenced by the so-called âcolourâ revolutions.