Authority In the fields of sociology and political science, authority is the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' is practiced in ways such a judicial branch or an executive branch of government.''The N ...

is the power to command. Authority or The Authority may also refer to:

Arts, entertainment, and media

*''

Authority (album) ''Authority'' is the fifth studio album by British electronic music group Client, released on 21 March 2014 through German electronic music label Out of Line Music. Background After former singer Sarah Blackwood's (alias Client B) retreat from ...

'', a 2014 album by British electronic music group Client * "Authority" (''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit''), a ninth-season episode of ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' *''

Authority (Southern Reach Trilogy) ''Authority'' is a 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer. It is the second in a series of three books called the Southern Reach Trilogy. In an interview, VanderMeer stated that, "if ''Annihilation'' is an expedition into Area X, then ''Authority'' is an ...

'', a 2014 book by Jeff VanderMeer, the second book in the Southern Reach trilogy * ''The Authority'' (comics), superhero comic book published by DC Comics, under the Wildstorm imprint, debuting in 1999 *'' The Authority'', ''His Dark Materials'' character who debuts in the 2000 novel ''The Amber Spyglass'' *''The Authority'', used by the autonomous council of vampire hierarchs in '' The Southern Vampire Mysteries'' novels and the TV series '' True Blood'' based on the novels

Internet

*Authority, a grading of a blog's worthiness, used by Technorati *Authority, one of two scores assigned by the HITS algorithm, a scheme used for ranking web pages (also known as hubs and authorities)

Law

*Legal authority, a

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...

or permission to do something **Legal authority to arrest someone, known as the power of arrest *Authority, one of the sources of law in a particular legal system **

Primary authority A primary authority is a term used in legal research to refer to statements of law that are binding upon the courts, government, and individuals. Primary authority is usually in the form of a document that establishes the law, and if no document exi ...

Secondary authority In law, a secondary authority is an authority purporting to explain the meaning or applicability of the actual verbatim texts of primary authorities (such as constitutions, statutes, case law, administrative regulations, executive orders, treaties ...

*Authority in the law of agency, the ability of an agent to legally bind a principal **

Apparent authority In the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and South Africa, apparent authority (also called "ostensible authority") relates to the doctrines of the law of agency. It is relevant particularly in corporate law and constitutional law ...

** Actual authority *

Rational-legal authority Rational-legal authority (also known as rational authority, legal authority, rational domination, legal domination, or bureaucratic authority) is a form of leadership in which the authority of an organization or a ruling regime is largely tied to ...

, a sociological concept

Organizations

* High Authority (disambiguation), any of several executive organizations or branches *

Palestinian National Authority The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine,

, the administrative organization established to govern the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a consequence of the 1994 Oslo Accords * Police authority (UK), a body charged with securing efficient and effective control of a territorial police area *

Public authority A public-benefit nonprofit corporation is a type of Nonprofit organization, nonprofit corporation chartered by a state governments of the United States, state government, and organized primarily or exclusively for Institution, social, educational ...

, a government-chartered corporation such as a transit authority * The Authority (professional wrestling), a faction in WWE created by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon

Other uses

Authority (management) Authority in project management is the power that gives a project manager the ability to act in the name of the project sponsor executive or on behalf of the organization. There are several different types of authority that project managers can ...

, formal or legitimate, specified in a charter *

Authority (sociology) In sociology, authority is the legitimate or socially approved power which one person or a group possesses and practices over another. The element of legitimacy is vital to the notion of authority and is the main means by which authority is dis ...

, the legitimate or socially approved use of power *

Authority (textual criticism) The authority of a text is its reliability as a witness to the author's intentions. These intentions could be initial, medial or final, but intentionalist editors (most notably represented by Fredson Bowers and G. Thomas Tanselle editing school) ...

, a text's reliability as a witness to the author's intentions * Appeal to authority, a type of argument in logic *

Authority control In information science, authority control is a process that organizes information, for example in library catalogs, by using a single, distinct spelling of a name (heading) or a numeric identifier for each topic. The word ''authority'' in ''aut ...

, in library and information science, standardization of the names of entities * Taxonomic authority, the scientist who first validly published a taxon name

Arts, entertainment, and media

Internet

Law

Organizations

Other uses

See also