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The problem of obedience to authority has persisted since the early human societies and today this problem has become particularly important because the development of democracy has pushed the modern society to the new level of the development, where democratic rights and liberties often raise the problem of obedience to authority. In this respect, many specialists (Blass, 181) believe that obedience to authority is one of the crucial issues affecting the development of the modern civilization because the most advanced societies, such as the American society, keep progressing due to the stability within the society and due to the lack of conflicts within the society. On the other hand, such societies as American one are highly-developed democratic societies and they cannot admit the misuse of power by the authorities that make obedience to the authorities quite natural. Nevertheless, the problem of obedience to authority and whether modern people still need to obey to authority or not persists even in the American society because the seeming stability in the American society is grounded on the oppression of minorities and the establishment of the total control of the ruling elite and the middle and upper-classes over the entire society. In such a situation, obedience to authority turns out to be an essential condition of the social stability within the American society but obedience to authority proves to be a tool of control over dissatisfied masses of people, which has its limits and, in case of the excessive oppression of minorities, it can lead to the outbreak of social disobedience, such as the civil rights movements and other movements that can threaten to the social stability and that deny obedience to authority to maintain basic human rights and liberties and equal opportunities for all members of the American society.

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Therefore, the society should obey to authority as long as the authority does not violate basic rights and liberties of large masses of people, while as soon as the authority starts to oppress citizens the society should cease its obedience and start social disobedience to regain the balance in relationships between the society and the authority.
Obedience as an essential condition of the maintenance of existing social order
In the contemporary society, obedience to authority is considered to be a norm. At the same time, such an attitude to obedience and authority is not new because historically people were inclined to obey to the authority (Blass, 143). The authority played traditionally the dominant role and, in the modern society, the role of the authority is still dominant, especially in the US. In this respect, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that the American society is highly individualistic, where the role of personality was and still is extremely important. The nation is leader-oriented and, therefore, the society is traditionally obedient to the authority.
On the other hand, the obedience to authority is an essential condition of the maintenance of the existing social order. In other words, through obedience to authority people agree to maintain the existing social order and social relationships, preserving status quo regardless of changes in policies conducted by the authorities. Americans are accustomed to the idea that the obedience to authority brings them well-being and stability in the social order (Milgram et al, 684). At the same time, it is obvious that obedience results from the domination of the middle and upper-classes in the US society. They understand that obedience to authority guarantees the preservation of status quo in the American society. Therefore, through obedience to authority middle and upper-classes can maintain their position, even though their well-being is maintained by costs of the lower-class. To put it in simple words, the authorities can conduct any policies as long as they meet interests of the middle and upper-class, who remain obedient as long as their position is protected, whereas the position of the lower class is vulnerable to pressure from the part of the authority, who maintain the position of the middle and upper-class at costs of the lower class.