Editing State (polity) (section)

===Rational-legal authority===
{{Main|Rational-legal authority}}

Max Weber identified three main sources of political legitimacy in his works. The first, legitimacy based on traditional grounds is derived from a belief that things should be as they have been in the past, and that those who defend these traditions have a legitimate claim to power. The second, legitimacy based on charismatic leadership, is devotion to a leader or group that is viewed as exceptionally heroic or virtuous. Max Weber's concept of charisma is also explored by Fukuyama, who uses it to explain why individuals relinquish their personal freedoms and more egalitarian smaller communities in favor of larger, more authoritarian states. The Scholars goes further by saying that Charismatic leaders can leverage this mass mobilization as a military force, achieving victories and securing peace, which in turn further legitimizes their authority. Fukuyama cites the example of Muhammad, whose influence facilitated the rise of a powerful state in North Africa and the Middle East, despite limited economic foundations.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fukuyama |first1=Francis |title=The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution. |date=2012 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0-374-53322-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i9xRAQAAMAAJ&q=origins+of+political+order+amazon}}</ref>
The third is [[rational-legal authority]], whereby legitimacy is derived from the belief that a certain group has been placed in power in a legal manner, and that their actions are justifiable according to a specific code of written laws. Weber believed that the modern state is characterized primarily by appeals to rational-legal authority.<ref>{{cite book |author=Wallerstein, Immanuel |title=The end of the world as we know it: social science for the twenty-first century |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8166-3398-2 |page=228 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PEmVAQ_HMc8C&pg=PA228|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160528230745/https://books.google.com/books?id=PEmVAQ_HMc8C&pg=PA228 |archive-date=28 May 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Collins, Randall |title=Weberian Sociological Theory |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-521-31426-8 |page=158 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v39x_fKR-ykC&pg=PA158|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603181228/https://books.google.com/books?id=v39x_fKR-ykC&pg=PA158 |archive-date=3 June 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Max Weber dictionary: key words and central concepts |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8047-5095-0 |page=148 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_c3Mcnh8hCgC&pg=PA148 |author1=Swedberg, Richard |author2=Agevall, Ola |name-list-style=amp|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428101520/https://books.google.com/books?id=_c3Mcnh8hCgC&pg=PA148 |archive-date=28 April 2016}}</ref>