In COMPASSIONATE AUTHORITY Kathleen B. Jones takes up some of the most central debates in contemporary feminist analysis - debates concerning the nature of the categories of feminist theory, the development of alternative interpretative strategies in feminist theory, and the position of authority in both feminist theory and practice. Engaging the criticisms of feminist theory offered both by postmodernist feminists and the writings of feminists of color, and employing the textual strategies of feminist film theory, Jones reads canonical texts in modern political theory "against the grain." In doing so, she demonstrates the ways in which gender has been used to construct the paradigms of politics and the practices of authority. Jones explicates the historical roots of the definition of authority as sovereignty and considers the limited usefulness of this conceptualization for the feminist project. She counters this formulation of authority which has dominated political discourse for centuries with an alternative conceptualization of "compassionate authority." This feminist reconstruction of the theory and practice of authority provides a basis for the foundation of a new and meaningful order, for a "woman-friendly" polity. This work uses authority as the means to examine how political analysis is transformed by thinking through gender. In doing so, it makes an original and important contribution to the field of feminist political theory: a burgeoning field in which many political concepts have received rich and extensive treatment and yet, a field in which the question of authority has never before been systematically explored. Drawing on the writings of feminist philosophers, literary critics, film theorists, and historians, as well as on the more orthodox texts of political theory, this book will have broad appeal to scholars and students of women's studies, political science, and a range of interdisciplinary studies.