The Concept of Democracy in Weber’s Political Sociology

Bibliographic Data

ID20050150
AuthorsStefan Breuer (0000-0002-6290-9725, Chalmers University of Technology, corresponding author)
Year1998
Pages1-13
Publication date1998-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueMax Weber, Democracy and Modernization (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan UK (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/978-1-349-26836-8_1
OpenAlexW2482531723
ISBN9781349268368
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited17

Two processes have shaped the political order of the modern age: bureaucratization and democratization. The political sociology of Max Weber is commonly associated only with the first of these. Its relationship to democracy, by contrast, seems ambiguous. Political scientists oriented towards natural law, such as Leo Strauss, Eric Voegelin or Robert Eden, condemn the value-relativism of his political sociology, its agnosticism or even nihilism, and conclude that it is incapable of taking a positive stance vis-à-vis democracy. Others take offence at the overemphasis on power in Weber’s theory (Aron, von Ferber), at the élitist or oligarchic understanding of politics which puts Weber close to pre-fascist élite theorists such as Mosca, Pareto or Michels (Mommsen), at the latent fascism implicit in his concept of charisma (Becker 1988) and so on. Max Weber appears as a forerunner of Carl Schmitt (Mommsen, Habermas), or as a precursor of the authoritarian and dictatorial Führerstaat (Löwith). Even those who value him for his pitiless unmasking of the illusory character of modern mass democracy and its transformation into Bonapartist Caesarism (Marcuse, Lukács) leave little doubt that they regard Weber as standing solidly on the side of the latter.1 Max Weber and democracy? Not all his interpreters, perhaps, but certainly a large number, would find ‘Max Weber contra democracy’ a more accurate title

Authoritarianism · Charisma · Democracy · Democratization · Dictatorship · Epistemology · Nihilism · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Relativism · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Philosophy · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory