Hello! I noticed on our side only one response associated parents with authority, while several French responses mention mom and dad. I postulate parental authority is more intimidating in France :)

I think there's a common stereotype here of middle class suburban parents, who are too absorbed in their kids, stewarding them from one activity to another, pampering them, and living and breathing through them. Meanwhile the kids are supposed to act like shameless, disrespectful brats in grocery stores, on vacation, everywhere. These stereotypical parents might yell their heads off in public but are not supposed to hit, and generally seem like ineffectual figures of authority. Maybe this breakdown of parental authority is less of a stereotype in France?

Most of the responses, from both groups, have negative connotations (e.g. strict, limiting). Only the French mention "necessaire", which makes me wonder if the French value the work done by authorities more than Americans do.

Je ne pense pas que les français accordent plus de valeur au travail des autorités. Personnellement, je pense qu'il est nécessaire mais que, souvent, il n'est pas assez respecté.

That is actually quite interesting that familial figures appear in French responses, as if parents are the most immediate source of command within a household, that the household comes before the government.

But, I noticed that on the American side, we put in a lot of "power" where the French responses varied more. It seems that we see authority as a source of power, a largely motivating force to drive certain things like projects. Another way one could see authority is a strong figure, not necessarily powerful by pure power, but powerful in a protective and active way. I think we might put too much emphasis on gaining power but not necessarily using it in the correct way. This is similar to how the response varied for police, where the French were more likely to see their police force as a positive security entity, where we saw our police force as a powerful force of fear and strict enforcement.

Je pense qu'il ne faut pas confondre le mot abstrait autorité et les autorités, ce qui veut dire la police, le gouvernement; l'autorité est une notion générale, elle veut dire se faire respecter par les autres, faire accepter son point de vue, et cela marche pour les parents, les profs; on dit qu'un prof qui n'a pas d'autorité ne maîtrise pas sa classe, ne se fait pas respecter par ses élèves; les autorités, elles, sont là pour faire appliquer les lois votées par le parlement.

Irina,

je pense que nous avons le même problème en France, on reproche souvent aux parents d'être trop occupés par leur vie professionnelle et de ne pas consacrer assez de temps à leurs enfants: ils n'ont plus d'autorité sur eux car au bout d'un moment, les enfants font ce qu'ils veulent.

I enjoyed reading Martine's response, which emphasized clarifying between authority and the authorities, which are in fact two different concepts. Authority is far more ethereal and conceptual, whereas the authorities are concrete and associated thus with police violence.  The French responses tend to reflect this distinction, where authority seems in general to be more respected.  I think this phenomenon is more of a European trait in general, as I have read similar descriptions of the British, who accept CCTV cameras everywhere and are more deferent to the authorities than Americans.  Arguable, this reflects the history of the societies and thus the state-of-mind in those societies, Europe where historically monarchies ruled the nations, but then a history of revolution and anti-authority movement in America.  Some Eruopean nations have this as well, but their history includes far more of a past in accepting authority than America's past does.  After all, we were founded on overturning authority.

I enjoyed reading Martine's response, which emphasized clarifying between authority and the authorities, which are in fact two different concepts. Authority is far more ethereal and conceptual, whereas the authorities are concrete and associated thus with police violence.  The French responses tend to reflect this distinction, where authority seems in general to be more respected.  I think this phenomenon is more of a European trait in general, as I have read similar descriptions of the British, who accept CCTV cameras everywhere and are more deferent to the authorities than Americans.  Arguable, this reflects the history of the societies and thus the state-of-mind in those societies, Europe where historically monarchies ruled the nations, but then a history of revolution and anti-authority movement in America.  Some Eruopean nations have this as well, but their history includes far more of a past in accepting authority than America's past does.  After all, we were founded on overturning authority.

Martine, I think it's important that the difference between the concept of authority and the authorities has been brought up. It could bring up some interesting cultural insight about the two countries. From the looks of the American responses, power and authority are often associated, but the word respect is not as much. American history since its revolution has had many rebellious phases that Americans seem to embrace. People still love the 60s, and from what I remember learning, that was a pretty rebellious time worldwide (correct me if I'm wrong). Also, American hip hop in its prime was notable for being anti-authority and that genre has really affected the youth growing up in that time and coming into age now.

Are there any historical or cultural influences that you know of that might have affected views on authority in France?

Johanna et Aaron,

je suis contente de pouvoir vous éclairer un peu sur le send du mot autorité en français; nous avons encore très présent à l'esprit Mai 68, et certains pensent aujourd'hui que notre société a besoin de ce genre de chose, d'un soulèvement contre les autorités.

En même temps vu le manque d'influence qu'ont eu les grèves du mois dernier, j'ai l'impression que le gouvernement, qui représente l'autorité française,  n'est plus vraiment à l'écoute de la "rue" et qu'un soulevement contre les autorités n'auraient peut etre pas un grand effet. C'est a se demander si un autre Mai 68 peut encore se produire aujourd'hui.

Faites-vous la différence entre authority et authorities?

Le mot ''authority'' exprime l'autorité que peuvent avoir les parents par rapport à leurs enfants par exemple.

Alors que le mot ''authorities'' représente les autorités. Par exemple, les autorités du Droit en justice.

Je pense que ces deux mots sont différents et qu'en français on utilise le même mot, mais il y a plusieurs significations. Alors qu'en anglais, il y a un mot pour chaque signification.