-----Original Message-----
When I'm talking about legitimate authority, I'm not talking about the capitalist class. I have no trouble imagining how to get rid of that. I'm referring to all the people with legitimate authority in our society who really do make our way of life possible:
[WS:] I am generally with you on this, but I wonder what you mean by capitalist class. Does that include managers and executives? If so, they do add value to the production process quite considerably, as good organization is quite essential for the functioning of modern economy and society. In that respect, they are no different than doctors or engineers or, for that matter, union organizers who you did mention.
I can see placing property owners living off property income in the parasitic capitalist class, albeit how do you separate those parasites from retirees who also live of property income i.e. income generated by their savings and investments?
I do not think it is possible to neatly divide people into legitimate and illegitimate authority as almost all people have some degree of authority in one aspect or life or another - and they will generally use as much of that authority as they can get away with. My favorite example of this is the institution of the "public toilet lady" in the Communist Eastern Europe (public toilets were staffed, usually by elderly women, who collected usage fees, dispensed toiled paper and soap, and cleaned the facilities.) Although these women had probably the lowest occupational status, they wielded considerable power in the form of controlling access to the facility and the supply of toilet paper - and were known for abusing that power by refusing to issue a key or the 50cm ration of the toilet paper to those whom they disliked. The closest US equivalent that I can think of is perhaps Seinfled's "soup Nazi."
But more seriously, authority is created by a process rather than residing in the individuals. Therefore, the legitimation of any authority must also involve a process - as opposed to disempowering any particular class of individuals. I also think that most US organizations have already instituted that process in the form of division of power between boards and executive, collective decision making (voting on issues, elections to the board, etc.) - the real issue is to fine tune it (e.g. make it more open, reduce influence of concentrated wealth, etc.) rather than reinventing something from the scratch.
Wojtek