Max Weber, charisma and nationalist leadership

One of Max Weber's most well-known achievements was the formulation of three concepts of legitimate authority: traditional, legal-rational and charismatic. However, there are particular problems with the last of these, which is not historically grounded in the manner of the other two concepts. The charisma concept originated with Weber's sociology of religion, was pressed into service in pre-war writing on the sociology of domination, shifted focus in his wartime political writings and changed meaning again in his post-war writing on basic sociological concepts. To use the concept in historical-political analysis, I argue, one must distinguish between a pre-modern and modern form of charismatic domination. I argue that doing this enables us to understand features of the leadership of colonial nationalist and fascist movements. © ASEN/Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2011