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Max Weber’s account of the nature of politics in his 1919 essay Politics as a Vocation focuses less on the morality of politics than the attributes that a politician needs in order to be a successful leader. Max Weber, widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern sociology, was a leading figure in the antipositivism school of thought, meaning that he did not think that the social sciences could be studied in the same way as the natural sciences. Social things did not necessarily have simple causes, and elements such as culture and religion have a large impact on social phenomena. Indeed, his most famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, was based on these themes. He was involved in politics in his later years, around the time that he wrote Politics as a Vocation, and as such these works can be seen as a commentary on politics at that time.

The state, according to Weber, ‘is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory’ (Weber, 1946: 4, italics supressed). Weber begins his discussion with this definition, illustrating that the business of politics is always about force, therefore there is considerable responsibility attached to it and it should thus be treated seriously. The modern state has centralized, and bureaucratized, the process of governance. Rather than the personal rule of the time of Machiavelli, with lowerlevel administrators like de Orco having a certain amount of ownership of their actions, in the modern state power is shifted upwards and bureaucrats, often professional civil servants simply enforcing the decisions made above them, are shifted lower down the system.

For Weber, being a politician involves balancing the three essential qualities, (1) passion, (2) a sense of responsibility and (3) a sense of proportion. One needs passion in what you are doing in order to drive through change, and to prevent politics from becoming merely an academic discussion as opposed to actually doing something. Passion is also useful to gain adherents to your cause, and to motivate people when change is necessary. But passion in and of itself is problematic, as you cannot (nor perhaps should you) achieve things by will alone. Here, the senses of responsibility and proportion will help the politician deliver on the issues that they care so much about, whilst also remembering how close they are to the form of legitimate violence.

For Weber the business of being a politician involves balancing three qualities: (1) passion, (2) a sense of responsibility and (3) a sense of proportion. Conviction on its own was insufficient.

In the age of ideological polarization and populism that we live in today, Weber’s argument needs some consideration. Across the world we are increasingly being attracted to charismatic politicians, often from outside of the traditional political class, that adherents see as being able to shake up the political system for the better. Weber would not necessarily have regarded this as being a good thing. Whereas passion and the ability to persuade people of the need for change is not a bad thing in and of itself, it always needs to be measured with a sense of responsibility and proportion for government to be successful and balanced.

Activity 5. Please attempt the tasks below:

1 Why does Weber think that passion alone is insufficient to be a successful politician?

2 Make a list of some politicians you think are conviction politicians. Have they achieved what they set out to?