CHARISMA: A REASSESSMENT OF MAX WEBER`S THEORY
CHARISMA: A REASSESSMENT OF MAX WEBER`S THEORY

Summary/Abstract: According to the German sociologist Norbert Elias it was Max Weber who labeled a social phenomenon that had no name at that time. In his seminal study Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Weber devised a theory of charismatic leadership, where charisma stands for out of the ordinary (Ausseralltäglich) qualities attributed to a person. Charisma exists as long as there are people to acknowledge it and believe in its magical power. The world we live in is in no way short of charismatic or would-be charismatic persons. And history has taught us that charisma has also a dark side to it. But what is it that makes us more inclined to surrender to someone`s personal magnetism? Is it because we are social creatures who have evolved a prosocial behavior for our own good? Or maybe the answer lies in the nature of our “disenchanted” world? My paper attempts to show that there is no contradiction between the two while tackling both Max Weber`s theory of charismatic leadership and the newest research in the field of social and evolutionary psychology.

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