February 19: More Context

Conflict:Chapter 11 "Institutions"

This chapter focuses on the legitimacy of authority, what it is, what it's founded upon, and what it means in terms of conflict resolution. The author talks about a balance between force and consent and an inverse relationship between them. In all societies, he argues, each one is present in at least some way. When consent is high enough, the authority is considered legitimate. In this kind of society, there is generally a basic agreement about what norms should be followed, also known as a normative consensus. The author makes a distinction between disputes which arise in a consensual relationship and conflicts which arise in dissensual relationships. Conflict resolution, for the latter, involves rebuilding and recreating a normative consensus. The author then delves into distinctions in conflict resolution methods based on whether or not conflicts are consensual or dissensual. The chapter then shifts to focus on Weber's ideas of the three types of authority: traditional, charismatic, and rational-legal. The author argues that maybe there needs to be a fourth type of authority, one involving the practices of conflict resolution.
I decided to focus on this chapter because, looking at the end of it, I didn't recognize as many of the terms as the other two chapters. I really liked the introduction to the chapter because it was packed full of information and ideas. I thought the idea of a balance between consent and force was a good way to look at authority in a system. I liked that this idea could be applied to determining how conflicts are generally dealt with in different societies. It just shows how deep one must look in order to really be able to analyze and intervene in a dispute or conflict efficiently and effectively. I also found it interesting that the distinctions that the author made regarding consensus, dissensus, force, consent, etc. could be applied to smaller groups as well as large societies.