What is the difference between power and authority?

Authority has more of a connotation of being granted by a governing body or an electorate.

Power can just be grabbed.

So, someone might have the power to do something, but not the authority.

So authority rests in a higher sanction, while power is relatively intrinsic?

Authority is granted by a government of the people.

Power is usually taken or developed by force.

In principle, they are not the same.

One is spawned from the other, as in ” Might makes right.”

Power is an ability to do something.
Authority is a position where you are allowed or obligated to tell others to do something.

@woodcutter I know that may occur sometimes. Does it occur enough to warrant their contiguity as the same thing and subsequent blurring of any distinctions?

@atlantis It happens every election cycle. The voters create the “might” by their numbers and in doing so they make right. Whether or not that “right” is moral is another story altogether.

Free choice eh?

I’d say that authority is power that obeys societal rules. Someone who has authority has power through a means that is legitimate and well accepted, for instance, by working hard to rise the ranks in a company. Power may or may not obey societal rules, someone may become powerful in the way described previously, or by pointing a gun at a group of unarmed people.

Athority is Power’s subsidiary.

I agree with @Roby.

Basically, there are two types of power: Position Power (authority) and Personal Power (someone you respect). And isn’t life good when you are spending time with a person who has both?

“World is the will to power—and nothing besides!” – Nietzsche

There are two interpretations;

1 will to power is the drive of self-perfection innate in all human beings, a function of achievement, ambition and the desire to have the highest possible station in life.

2 Political, elitist and aristocratic domination.

Holding a gun on someone gives you the power to compel them to do things that they might not do willingly, such as give you their wallet or their car keys.

Having the law on your side, or an agreement that the person has defaulted on, such as a loan, for example, may give you the authority to compel them to do things that they are obliged to do, even if they don’t want to. You might still need the gun, though.

@CWOTUS I have a customer who has refused to honor an agreement (paying me). You have given me a good idea.

An example might help

I have the authority in my household to make all the decisions, but my wife has the power to change them.

;)

Authority is trust. Often, in practice, authority is given power, which is force.

You can lose trust (Authority) and retain power, for a time.

Power is an imbalance of control to one’s advantage. Authority is an agreement of control.

Power is a metaphysical phenomenon
Authority is the social manifestation of power.

Both power and authority go hand in hand.
If you do not have power you cannot show authority.
And if you wanna show authority you gotta have some power or else someone with more will take it.

@answerbank Can you check the link, please?