Evaluation of Agentic state + legitimacy of authority

Strength of Agentic state - 1

• Has strong external validity

• Holocause in Nazi germany - thousands of ordinary people obeying horrific orders and direectives from above

• Rwadan genocide turned neighbour against neighbour wit hdestructive propagandist orders transmitted by a popular radio show

Strength of Legitimacy of Authority

• Blass & schmitt - showed them milgrams study and asked the m to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm of the learner

• Students blamed the experimenter rather than the legitimate authority and expert authority

• shows that it is a valid concept when discussing destructive obedience

Limits of agentic state

• Cannot explain why some people do not obey

• - Only offers situational explanation rather than a dispositional explanation of obedience

Limits of both explanations

• Both are deterministic

• Implies that those who commit acts of destructive obedeince have no control over their actions

• The observation negates the oidea of people as autonomous and able to exercise free will