The verb confer comes from the Latin word conferre and refers to granting, adjudicating or attributing a right, a position or a faculty to an individual. Conferring can also consist of assigning a non-physical quality to something or someone.
For example: "The jury decided to confer the award on a 20-year-old young writer from Córdoba" , "I think the change in tactics will give the team greater strength" , "The government should give priority to children and retirees at the time of distributing social aid ” .
Suppose the directors of a cultural association decide to start presenting an annual award to a painter or sculptor who stands out for his contributions to the world of art. For this they summon three recognized personalities to form the jury. These members of the jury, after debating and analyzing different possibilities, decide to confer the award on a specific artist: that is, they grant him the recognition in question for his merits.
Municipal authorities in a town, meanwhile, can implement a system of licenses to authorize local artisans to offer their creations in public. In this framework, they are in charge of granting said permits according to the fulfillment of different requirements: those who wish to access the licenses must be residents of the municipality and do not have to have stable work, to name two of the requirements.
Finally, the members of a club can confer on the president of the institution the power to increase the quota in order to raise additional funds that will be used to build a new sports center.
If we look for a moment at the Spanish Crown, for example, a number of functions called 'relational', where the royal acts are included with the Government and the Parliament. Within this group of functions are those whose objective is to improve or complete the acts emanating from the other bodies, whether they come from the Cortes Generales or the Government.
With regard to the power to confer military and civilian jobs, it is necessary that this appointment be made following the laws to the letter. In other words, it is a legal configuration function; According to certain authors, the King has a margin of initiative in this attribution, although it must first be consulted by the Government and, once completed, the act must be countersigned.
In short, the verb confer refers to giving a third party a power that, in principle, could be the one who grants it but, for certain reasons, "prefers" that the other is in charge of administering it. This carries a series of risks, since when conferring a power or authority certain expectations are also sown which, if not fulfilled, can have consequences of varying degrees, depending on the case.
As expressed in the previous examples, the government and the authorities are the figures to which the country confers a series of powers to guarantee the well-being and development of its people, although it is known that they do not always meet these objectives. There are many stories of corruption and abuse of authority by those who should set an example to the people, and in them the greatest risks of this granting of power are appreciated.