Outline Weber's account of hierarchical authority. In what ways does it help us to understand the stability of post-war family life?

Tradition Family

Power is something held over others by certain individual, groups or institutional. These word by Max Weber, a German sociologist writing in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. We will drive you to Weber's theory of power and how power influence the stability of tradition families.

According to Weber, power and who exercise it is quite straightforward. You have it or you don’t have it; there is no in between situation. Obedience in such a setting, it is not something that is automatically given. It has to be secured by those in authority and the basis for this varies depending on whether we are talking about authority in the family, in the office, in the military or wherever.

In an institutional setting, company, government department or institution, power is a hierarchical, top-down affair. The distribution of power is clear for all to see , whose on top gives order while others obey - and each directs the actions of others further down the line of command. Institutions, organization and multinational show some of the key elements of bureaucratic power, which is a form of institutional rule-bound power based upon a clearly pointed hierarchy of the office. For example, public authorities set a series of instruction and prohibitions which limit our actions e.g. Student at school, how many hours they should study daily and fixing a holiday time at school. The decisions taken in this setting are not personal; it's by qualifications, skills and expertise. Each person take up a certain position in the vertical chain of command and each has a specific job to perform which can only be done from the orders received from above.

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Weber explain the power in term of tradition Family also, but before we explain these we will outline the main features of tradition family (1950s family) and how stability their lives in the past. In this period following the uncertainties, which come from the experience of the Second World War, big consequences was given by policy makers and moral observer to the role of the nuclear family (A social unit of wife, husband and dependent children) in shaping and ordering the healthy society. The family life in the immediate post-war period was stability, safe and happy family. Marriages were for life, married men were responsible about their partner and children, and they supported them financially. Father and mother are both contributed to family life, but each one has a different role in the family. Father always in the labor market and his responsibility to support his family through his paid work outside the home. Mothers always at home, caring of her home and children, since mother and children depend on the husband. Children live with their mothers and fathers until they left home or getting married. There was also a secret abuse in the past with violence from husband over his partner and children, but it was hidden, because the women didn't have the rights to speak or to write.

So far, the dominant power in the family is by the male head of the household, Weber look at the visible action inside family (who control the power at home) Power arrangement within families would be sought in decision-making processes which men and women engage in. Men have traditionally held coercive capacity over their dependants as well as economics power as 'breadwinner', and society supported them since men is the key point in the relationship between state and family. Outside family, Weber looks also to visible actions of governing bodies, for example the state and its/expert' agencies.

Patriarchal authority has a different meaning of power domination in tradition family life. It is a social system of unequal power relations between men and women, where men exercise power over women. Patriarch depend on the personal authority of the master, the male head of the household, The head of the family is said to possess authority on the basis of personal relations which are considered natural and enduring. Patriarch is formed of the two words father and ruler, in its common usage it meant of a father's house, father of whole family, and more especially head of a family. Patriarchal authority is rooted in tradition passed down from one generation to the next. Patriarchal authority and the dominant power of men's in tradition families can stable men's identity which effect also men's physical and mental health and effect their son's socialization. Destroying the male role of provider and protector means the fragmentation of male identity, this result in not only despair and danger and violence amongst men but also less commitment to family life and their children and this deeply alarming implications for the social order's.

In conclusion, we examine above Weber's accounts of power and moved to explore the nature of power at tradition family, which was hierarchical, orders come from top to down, and every body knows his role at home and in the society. We introduce also a different way of power, which seeks to achieve, order. As a result, we confirm that tradition family was featured as stability, secure, safe and happy in the past. The notion of the family as a standard, relatively predictable, permanent, monogamous, legally endorsed is less sustainable today than in the recent past. Families are no longer just the solids. Unchanging for wider structures in society but rather represent, in Silva & Smart, words, ' a re-define. Fluid context for intimate relationships. But as the tradition family was a source of stability and secure. It is also a source of inequality between women and men, since women did not have the write to speak about her experience in violence or abuses to any body in that period of time.

Reference: Ordering lives: family, work and welfare (Page. 29, 41, 47,62,72)