60 SOCIAL SCIENTIST the analyses. Power is sometimes confused with, and used as a synonym for such terms as, authority, force or violence. But these words, as Hannah Arendt succinctly states, ^refer to distinct, different phenomena and would hardly exist unless they did.'910 Authority is often defined as legitimate power. It means power based on consent. Its hallmark is unquestioning recognition by those who are asked to obey, without recourse to either coercion or persuasion.' * It is exercised only over those who voluntarily accept it. Robert A Dahl defines authority thus: A commands B and B feels A has perfect right to do so and which he has a complete obligation to accept. Power of this kind is often said to be legitimate. But when B feels A has absolutely no right to ask him to obey, which he has no obligation to obey, and which? perhaps, he actually has an obligation to resist. Power of this kind is often said to be illegitimate. Legitimate power is often called authority.! 2 It is, in other words, a psychological relationship between masses and elites, involving acceptance by the former of a claim by an elite to act in the name of the community. Marxist Approach Force implies a compulsion on someone to act against his will. Force can be viewed as the reserve capability and means of exercising physical power. Its possession and use by the state is an explicit means of supporting the authority of the system to persuade, deter or coerce. Force then amounts to a threat of violence or counter-violence. If violence is actually used, it may constitute merely demonstration of force. To state briefly, power is institutionalized and organized force meant to rule and govern, and force is the capacity and means of exercising power. Power is an end in itself, force is a means to sustain power and violence is force in action.'8 But the most crucial political issue is, and always has been, the question of who rules whom. Power, force, coercion and authority are but words to indicate the means by which man rules over man. They are said to be synonyms because they have the same function. Therefore, the distinctions hardly correspond to watertight compartments in the world of reality. There is nothing more common than the combination of force, violence and power and nothing less frequent than to find them in their pure and therefore extreme forms.l * All these concepts are nothing but various types or manifestations or forms or means of power which are used at different times and in different places in accordance with the prevailing objective situation, either in an isolated manner or simultaneously. It is in this context that Olsen argues that social power in its various forms of force, dominance, control, authority or influence may provide a unifying theme around which numerous competing theories of social organization can be synthesized.15