Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea of charismatic authority developed by Max Weber (1864-1920) to explain why people welcome some as their legitimate rulers and follow them loyally, for better or worse, while following others only dutifully or grudgingly. Weber was fascinated by those such as Napoleon (above) and Washington who achieved power not by right, as with traditional monarchs, or by law as with the bureaucratic world around him in Germany, but by revolution or insurrection. Drawing on the experience of religious figures, he contended that these leaders, often outsiders, needed to be seen as exceptional, heroic and even miraculous to command loyalty, and could stay in power for as long as the people were enthralled and the miracles they had promised kept coming. After the Second World War, Weber's idea attracted new attention as a way of understanding why some reviled leaders once had mass support and, with the arrival of television, why some politicians were more engaging and influential on screen than others.
With
Linda Woodhead The FD Maurice Professor and Head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College London
David Bell The Lapidus Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University
And
Tom Wright Reader in Rhetoric at the University of Sussex
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts |
| 0:04.6 | Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time. There's a reading list to go with it |
| 0:08.5 | on our website and you can get news about our programs if you follow us on Twitter at BBC |
| 0:13.6 | In Our Time. I hope you enjoyed the programs. |
| 0:16.2 | Hello Max Weber, 1860-1920, devised the idea of charismatic authority to explain why |
| 0:23.0 | people accept some as their legitimate rulers and not others. Traditional monarchs and |
| 0:28.3 | those appointed by law were one thing. But what are the individuals, often revolutionaries |
| 0:32.9 | who need to be seen as exceptional, heroic, even miraculous to command loyalty? |
| 0:38.7 | And for Weber, that charismatic person can disrupt the old order both for better and for |
| 0:43.7 | worse and stay in power for as long as the people are enthralled and the miracles keep |
| 0:48.5 | coming. |
| 0:49.5 | When we discuss the idea about charisma are Linda Woodhead, the FD Morris professor and |
| 0:55.0 | the head of the department of theology and religious studies at King's College London. |
| 0:59.3 | David Bell will appear this professor in the department of history at Princeton University |
| 1:03.7 | and Tom Wright, reader in rhetoric at the University of Sussex. Tom Wright, what do we |
| 1:08.8 | need to know about Max Weber in the period in which he was working? |
| 1:12.8 | So Max Weber was born into a large prosperous cosmopolitan family in Irfert in Central |
| 1:18.5 | Germany and it was a family dominated by three professions, two ancient professions and one |
| 1:25.4 | modern profession. And I think this is crucial to understanding Weber and his work. |
| 1:30.4 | On his mother's side he came from a line of scholars and on his father's side, father |
| 1:35.2 | was a lawyer. But crucially his father was also a politician. And so growing up in Berlin, |
| 1:41.1 | Weber was surrounded by some of the leading politicians of the Bismarck era. And I think |
... |
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