Authority in Management

In government,the term authority is often used interchangeably with power. However, their meanings I differ: while power is de?ned as "the ability to in?uence somebody to do something that he/she would not have done", authority refers to a claim of legitimacy, the justi?cation and right to exercise that power. For example, while a mob has the power to punish a criminal, for example by lynching, people who believe in the rule of law consider that only a court of law has the authority to punish a criminal legally as the law says