For Weber (1978) charismatic authority is the type in which the authority is believed to have unnatural superiorities or exceptional characteristics. People, according to Weber follow the charismatic figure “by virtue of his mission” and charisma sets its own limits.

Nevertheless, it has a temporary character as charisma will wane into an institution, eventually being routinized. Traditional authority, on the other hand, feeds upon customs and convention. Being a source of conservatism, this type of authority also rests on identification with owner of the authority. Occupying the foreground is not, however, the transformative capacity of the rule or the organization, but rather provision of stability and preservation of social order. Legal-rational authority, as the third type of Weber’s classification, provides a source of legitimacy on a de-personalized and formal basis.