Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority
Milgram proposed two reasons why people obey authority figures. People hand over personal responsibility to the authority figure. They also obey because they see that authority figure as having the right to give orders.
Real World
Soldiers who carried out atrocities at My Lai in 1968 later claimed they were 'just following orders' from Lieutenant Calley — a textbook agentic state where moral responsibility was displaced upward to a legitimate authority figure.
Exam Focus
Link agentic state and legitimacy together in 16-mark essays; the two explanations are complementary, not alternatives.
Evaluation Scaffold
A four-step framework for high-quality evaluation. Use this for 'assess', 'evaluate', and 'to what extent' questions.
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