The Emergence of Authority.

Power arises because institutions mediate dependency. Its legitimacy depends on whether it expands or diminishes human agency.

Photo by Sasun Bughdaryan on Unsplash

In the previous essay I argued that institutions exist because human beings are simultaneously rational and dependent. Families, markets, charities, governments and other cooperative arrangements are technologies that enable individuals to solve problems they could not reliably solve alone. Their purpose is to mediate unavoidable dependency while preserving or expanding human agency.

That conclusion immediately raises a further question.

Once such institutions exist, what follows?

The answer is both obvious and often neglected. The moment a bridge is built, someone must decide how it is maintained, who may cross it, how its costs are borne, and how disputes are resolved. These questions are not accidental additions. They arise because the institution exists at all.

Whether the institution is a family, a school, a hospital, a market or a government, the underlying structure remains the same. Wherever an institution mediates a significant human dependency, decisions must be made about how that institution operates.

This observation introduces a second layer of social organisation.

The first problem of civilisation is unavoidable dependency.
The second is governance.

Political philosophy has often begun with the second problem. It asks who should rule, who should possess authority, and how authority should be limited. Those are important questions. But they are downstream. Authority matters because institutions matter. Institutions matter because dependency exists. The chain begins with the human condition, not with politics.

This perspective also changes how we understand power.

Power is commonly imagined as something possessed by rulers, governments, or wealthy individuals — as coercion, influence, or economic leverage. These descriptions capture real features of power, yet they begin after institutions already exist. A more fundamental description is available.

Human beings depend upon institutions to navigate the unavoidable vulnerabilities of life. Whoever can substantially shape the operation of those institutions acquires the capacity to influence the conditions under which other people exercise their agency. Power, in this sense, is not an independent force that precedes institutions. It emerges because institutions mediate dependency.

The sequence is remarkably consistent:

Dependency gives rise to institutions.
Institutions create points of decision.
Points of decision create authority.
Authority creates the possibility of power.

None of this is inherently pathological. A bridge cannot exist without someone maintaining it. A school cannot function without someone deciding what is taught. A court cannot resolve disputes without someone interpreting the law. The existence of authority is often a necessary consequence of institutional cooperation.

The more interesting question lies elsewhere.

If authority emerges wherever institutions mediate dependency, by what standard should that authority be judged?

The previous essay proposed that institutions should be evaluated according to whether they preserve or expand human agency. The same standard applies to the exercise of authority within them. Authority has no independent moral status. Like the institutions from which it emerges, it derives its legitimacy from the extent to which it preserves or expands human agency.

The question is therefore not whether authority exists. The question is whether its exercise leaves individuals more capable of directing their own lives, or progressively more dependent upon the continuing discretion of those who govern the institutions through which they must pass.

This essay does not attempt a complete answer. It merely suggests that power is not the starting point of political philosophy. It is the consequence of a more fundamental problem.

Nature makes human beings dependent.
Human beings create institutions.
Institutions require governance.
Only then does the question of power arise.

Bryan Theunissen is a South African doctor with a stubborn streak of optimism. Even after years of watching bad policy win, he still insists on pointing to better choices.