Visiblement, la notion d'autorité ne vous a pas beaucoup inspiré... Donc je me dévoue : l'autorité semble être incontestablement liée au

In response to Stephanie, I don't think that we Americans really think about 'church' when we hear authority. But it's also hard to generalize because in the US, people are from all different backgrounds, and their response to the church is different.
As for 'administration', this word is usually associated with teachers, principles, head masters, etc. It's a term primarily associated with school.
Now I have a question. It seems that 'parents' is mentioned a lot on the French side whereas 'teachers' is mentioned a lot on the American side. It seems as if the Americans feel like they are more controlled in school than in the home. Do you feel that your parents have more control over you than your teachers? I feel like my parents are more flexible with what I want to do than my teachers are.

I also have a question about the appearance of 'parents' on the French side. I think that parents of Americans have less authority over their children than French parents. American kids can start driving when they are fifteen and they have parttime jobs soon after. In fact, parents and kids both lead hectic lives as the kids become teenagers and only see each other haphazardly during the day. I think this leads to a decrease in parental authority. Do you agree with this assumption about French parents and their children?

There was one mention of the word "church" and I think it is unrepresentative of the United States as a whole. One aspect that did intrigue me in the french point of view is the association of danger with the word "authority". What kind of authority is referenced here and in what sense is authority thought to be dangerous?

I think that parent isn't so much associated with authority as teacher because we know our parents on a more personal basis, while teachers mainly impose rules and interact with students on a more formal level. Also, I feel that there are more severe consequences for disobeying a teacher than there are for disobeying your parents. Do you agree?

Il est vrai qu'en France, l'autorité des parents semble encore assez influente en comparaison avec les répones Américaines.Je pense être assez d'accord avec Tazeen en ce qui concerne la relation parents/enfants car en France, jusqu'à 18 ans, il est difficile et rare d'avoir son indépendance, excepté dans les cas où l'adolescent travaille déjà où est loin de ses parents. Les parents sont donc encore influents dans les décisions de leurs enfants lorsque ceux-ci ne sont pas encore majeurs ou vivent encore chez eux.Les petits boulots ("jobs") sont également moins fréquents en France. Mais tout cela dépend de l'attitude des parents et de leur progéniture...
Je ne suis pas d'accord avec Christine sur l'autorité des professeurs.J'ai l'impression que l'autorité des enseignants, en France a du mal à être respectée, peut-être parceque les locaux ne sont pas toujours bien entretenus, que certains professeurs sont mal formés, et qu'il manque parfois des moyens et de la place pour enseigner, en particulier au lycée ou en université... Dans ces conditions, il est parfois difficile de prendre l'administration au sérieux et de les respecter! C'est pourquoi l'autorité des enseignants ne semble pas faire peur, et en tous cas, faire ses preuves parmis les étudiants français.
Enfin,pour l'adjectif "dangereux", je pense qu'il a été associé à l'autorité parceque ,comme c'est parfois le cas pour la police, il peut y avoir des abus d'autorité.

In response to Stephanie:
Do you feel that the administration of INT is fair to the students? How much chance do students have to influence decisions? I'm very curious about how this works at many schools; in England, the governing council contains students, whereas in the US very few schools listen to the students' opinions (MIT is better than most).
Also, I think that there is a difference between what the "authority" says (ie, perhaps "no sex before marriage") and what people actually do. Maybe we don't listen to authority very well, but I don't feel that anyone has created rules for me that I really follow. So maybe the perception from outside is that the church has authority over people, but at least among my friends, it either has no influence, or people decide that they agree with their religion, not that they must obey.

A word about authority of the Church...
Agreed that the single mention is unrepresentative of the US in general. The notion of separation of Church and State is as old as the nation itself, for good historical reasons.
However, there are some places where the Church has a much stronger influence, even complementary to municipal law. The most notable examples are small Southern Baptist towns; old communities of people like Amish, where effectively Church *is* Law; places like Utah, or the ethnic sections of some large cities, where the vast majority of the population is one specific denomination.
In these kinds of instances, Church authority is strong, because it is an inextricable part of every person's daily life.

I was just wondering how strong does the Church influence the public life in France...Or is there any such influence at all?

En France l'église possède relativement peu d'influence, bien sûr il existe une certaine autorité surtout dans les milieux à éducation chrétienne mais en fait peu de gens même dans ces milieux respectent vraiment les paroles cléricales. Non je ne pense pas que l'église est une influence très importante en France mais je me trompe peut-être.