Authority relationships in American classrooms are mirror images of authority relationships in the larger society. These patterns originally developed out of the Western liberal tradition where parental authority and authority of counsel (or wisdom) evolved into authority by force and bureaucracy. In either case the result was politically and socially repressive for the classroom and society at large. From the colonial period to the middle of the 19th century, conceptions of authority found their basis in ideas from the Enlightment liberal tradition of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Proponents of these ideas translated into supporters of either elitist or democratic-elitist positions. In the elitist position, often supported by Federalists, there was no reference to education of the masses. Although the democratic-elitists, made up of both Federalists and Republicans, supported universal male education, they believed in the ascendency of a natural aristocracy and rule by force if reason failed. The result was a nonegalitarian educational system that supported the status quo and failed to develop the creative individuality of the student. (DE)