authority vs consensus

authority

noun
  • Official permission; authorisation to act in some capacity on behalf of a ruling entity. 

  • A reliable, definitive source of information on a subject. 

  • Persons, regarded collectively, who occupy official positions of power; police or law enforcement. 

  • A government-owned agency that runs a revenue-generating activity for public benefit. 

  • Status as a trustworthy source of information, reputation for mastery or expertise; or claim to such status or reputation. 

  • Power or right to make or enforce rules or give orders; or a position having such power or right. 

consensus

noun
  • General agreement among the members of a given group or community, each of which exercises some discretion in decision-making and follow-up action. 

  • A process of decision-making that seeks widespread agreement among group members. 

  • Average projected value. 

  • An agreement on some data value that is needed during computation. 

verb
  • To seek consensus; to hold discussions with the aim of reaching mutual agreement. 

How often have the words authority and consensus occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )