Authority depends on reputation earned through prior verified decisions.

Evidence

No leader can rely exclusively on the social aspect of a mutual understanding about expectations; he will always have to make the claim of having proved himself, to rely on his reputation for having made successful and correct decisions in a certain area. That he has proved himself cannot be verified without reference to topics and people. In other words, even generalizations relating to time cannot bring about the creation of authority entirely without reference to reputation, and this will tend towards social generalization as soon as communication about it takes place. The opinions and willingness of others to follow will count above all where what is right is not immediately and clearly obvious. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 740

Categorization

• XREF: This is essentially Luhmann describing the face-to-face grounding that Giddens claims is transposed into faceless commitments in expert systems — a bridge passage for the reader’s comparative argument.