The demanding and enforcement of complete obedience to authority may be political, parental or ideological. It may be manifested in police brutality, governmental intimidation, or organizational indoctrination. Authoritarians claim their power to have been vested in them by virtue of supreme logic or science; by God; by the culmination of historical processes in their eventuality, or by destiny; or by hierarchical position in a structure of relationships. The authoritarian truly believes in a mystique that he or she somehow earned the right to such behaviour and, frequently, that he or she is the guardian of defenders against the forces of illogic, incompetence, sloth, immorality and in general, creeping entropy

The frequently friendless authoritarians are vectors of stress whether throughout the work unit, the enterprise, the community or the government, depending on their number or the reach of their influence. They can never be re-educated to be other than what they are and must simply be broken by time and events. Weak persons may revel in the idea that they are authoritarian, giving them an imaginary strength, while in reality they are petty, as is frequently exhibited in family roles

Every strong leader or government is accused of being authoritarian. Leadership, however, entails the confidence of knowing that one is right. This is not a subject for negotiation, or the verbal wrongs of those who are in a subordinate place or of those whose many and diverse interests may have to be considered. The leader acts, not only speaks, for all. Great enterprises are launched and carried to success only by the strong, acting with dispatch and unfettered by consultations. Authoritarianism's emphasis on order and discipline has been a major factor in the economic success of many countries