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Max Weber on the Ethical Irrationality of Political Leadership

This paper analyses the ethical basis of Max Weber's theory of political leadership. It (i) expounds the connection between the ethics of conviction and responsibility Weber outlines in Politics as a Vocation and the ideal-types of value and instrumental rationality he defines in Economy and Society, (ii) examines Weber's commitment to a practical reconciliation of these political ethics/action types, (iii) argues that, for Weber, this reconciliation ultimately is to proceed through the subordination of conviction to an ethic of responsibility.

Key Words: ethics • ideal-types • political leadership • politics • rationality • Weber

Sociology, Vol. 31, No. 3, 549-564 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/0038038597031003010


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