Noob question: How do Towny permissions work?

http://code.google.com/a/eclipselabs.org/p/towny/wiki/PermissionNodes

For permission nodes like "towny.town.plot.clear" and "towny.nation.grant-titles," will the permission nodes only be useful if the player also has the relevant position in towny (ie, being a king or a mayor), or is the permission node itself used to indicate who is a king/mayor/etc?


(Also, does anyone know when TownySociety is coming out? http://dev.bukkit.org/server-mods/townysociety/)