Authority in the Church

Abstract

The structure of authority within associations and groups is a question distinct from that of authority in the state, of which they are a part. It is perfectly possible to envisage a pluralist state composed largely of groups whose organisation is centralised and hierarchical, with little place for participation of their members in the policy and management of the group. Although a pluralist state would not attempt to impose a particular form of government on its constituent associations, its advocates would perceive a danger in the authoritarian mentality which such hierarchically organised groups might engender — a mentality which could ultimately undermine the necessary conditions of the pluralist state itself. In the first place, Figgis and the other writers with whom we are principally concerned in this book, argued that the pluralist state is justified ultimately by the likelihood that it will maximise individual freedom and thereby allow persons to develop their characters; they cannot therefore totally ignore the possible threat to this freedom which might emanate from the groups which compose such a state. Pluralists might otherwise justifiably be accused of handing over the individual from one tyranny to another. Secondly, it is likely that many of the arguments which the pluralists used against a concentration of power in the state will apply to the large associations which are found within the state.