More than a century after Max Weber’s Vocation Lectures, the idea of charisma is still commonly associated with a leader’s personal qualities. This personalistic and—as I argue—simplistic understanding of the Weberian theory of charisma was perpetuated, especially in leadership studies, during the twentieth century by political scientists, social psychologists, and sociologists. Generally overlooked is the fact that the Weberian notion of charisma comprises diverse and fundamental metapersonal meanings that transcend individual qualities and revolve, among other things, around a specific combination of public positions, temporal contexts, and collective expectations. After framing the ambivalence of the concept of charisma within more fundamental and fertile ambivalences of Max Weber’s epistemological approach, this article demonstrates that metapersonal understandings of charisma actually prevailed in Weber’s writings prior to his late—and pedagogical—Vocation Lectures and series of newspaper articles. In the final part, I deduce from Weber’s writings a repertoire of metapersonal forms of charisma in politics, and I conclude that, when contemporary political leaders seek to activate such charismatic processes in order to pursue essentially charismatic forms of legitimation, important implications can arise regarding the unstable balance among liberal democracies, populisms, and authoritarianisms.

Reviving Metapersonal Charisma in Max Weber / M. Barisione. - In: POLITICAL THEORY. - ISSN 0090-5917. - (2023). [Epub ahead of print] [10.1177/00905917221129632]

Reviving Metapersonal Charisma in Max Weber

M. Barisione
Primo
2023

Abstract

More than a century after Max Weber’s Vocation Lectures, the idea of charisma is still commonly associated with a leader’s personal qualities. This personalistic and—as I argue—simplistic understanding of the Weberian theory of charisma was perpetuated, especially in leadership studies, during the twentieth century by political scientists, social psychologists, and sociologists. Generally overlooked is the fact that the Weberian notion of charisma comprises diverse and fundamental metapersonal meanings that transcend individual qualities and revolve, among other things, around a specific combination of public positions, temporal contexts, and collective expectations. After framing the ambivalence of the concept of charisma within more fundamental and fertile ambivalences of Max Weber’s epistemological approach, this article demonstrates that metapersonal understandings of charisma actually prevailed in Weber’s writings prior to his late—and pedagogical—Vocation Lectures and series of newspaper articles. In the final part, I deduce from Weber’s writings a repertoire of metapersonal forms of charisma in politics, and I conclude that, when contemporary political leaders seek to activate such charismatic processes in order to pursue essentially charismatic forms of legitimation, important implications can arise regarding the unstable balance among liberal democracies, populisms, and authoritarianisms.
Weber; theory; charisma; leadership; politics
Settore SPS/11 - Sociologia dei Fenomeni Politici
2023
3-feb-2023
Article (author)
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Barisione - Reviving Meta-personal charisma in Max Weber.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Post-print, accepted manuscript ecc. (versione accettata dall'editore)
Dimensione 1.02 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
1.02 MB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri
00905917221129632.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Publisher's version/PDF
Dimensione 144.89 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
144.89 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/943852
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 0
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 0
social impact