The Institute’s theory of authority could not explain where non-authoritarian authority would originate.

Evidence

But where were the living' authoritieswhich could not be reproduced by authoritarian societiesand where were the rational authority relations mentioned by Fromm, based on solidarity and common interest, to come from? This was a question which left the authors of the theoretical drafts’ at a loss. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 175

Categorization

• QUESTION: Did the later empirical studies (Studies in Prejudice, the group experiment) ever resolve this aporia, or just defer it?
• XREF: Links Horkheimer’s drafts to Fromm’s ‘rational authority’ concept and to the family’s contradictory function as both source and antidote.