The Problem with Political Leaders
TALKING POLITICS
Catherine Carr
4.7 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2019
⏱️ 41 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
This week marks the 100th anniversary of one of the most influential lectures ever given on politics: Max Weber's 'Politics as a Vocation', first delivered in Munich on 28 January 1919. David and Helen talk with Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's former chief of staff, about some of its lessons for the age of Brexit. Where have all the good leaders gone? Is the party system to blame? Are we suffering from an excess of conviction or a lack of conviction? And who will be responsible if we see a return to violence? Recorded before a live audience at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
Talking Points:
The British two-party system, which Weber admired, was intended to organize political divisions; however the plebiscitary politics of the Brexit referendum introduced another set of divisions.
- Divisions over Brexit cut across the parties.
- This demonstrates the danger of mixing different types of politics. Another problem is that the UK is a multinational state.
Is the current failure of leadership about the leaders we have chosen or the dilemmas they face?
- Right now, there doesn’t seem to be an opposition that is ready to take over. Does this suggest the need for a new party, or parties?
- In many ways, Tony Blair represented Weber’s ideal of charismatic leadership. But he also discredited that model for many people.
- Regardless of what you think of May or Corbyn, it’s clear that neither of them is in it for the money.
- May and Corbyn are a generational step back; right now, there aren’t any new leaders emerging.
When Weber wrote his lecture, the stakes of politics were remarkably high—there was a real risk of civil war.
- In a world in which large-scale violence is unlikely, is charismatic leadership still the answer?
Mentioned in this episode:
- Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation”
- Jonathan Powell’s essay in the New Statesman, “The Rise and Fall of Britain’s Political Class”
Further Learning:
- Jonathan Powell on the backstop
- David on how divisions between the old and the young are threatening democracy.
- The Talking Politics guide to… the 1970s, in which Helen explains the turbulent decade
- Who is Jeremy Corbyn?
And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: lrb.co.uk/talking
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello my name is David Ronsmann and this is Talking Politics. Today we are going to use |
| 0:14.7 | a lecture that was given in Germany a hundred years ago as the springboard for a discussion |
| 0:19.6 | with Jonathan Powell who was Tony Blair's Chief of Staff about the perils of professional |
| 0:24.3 | politics, the risk of a return to violence and yes Brexit. Talking politics is brought |
| 0:35.9 | to you in partnership with the London Review of Books. As politics speeds up, slow down |
| 0:41.8 | with a subscription to the LRB where Brexit and Trump are only part of a picture that |
| 0:46.5 | includes, well, everything else, read relevant pieces and subscribe at a special rate at |
| 0:54.0 | lrb.co.uk forward slash talking. |
| 1:01.1 | Helen Thompson and I recorded this conversation with Jonathan Powell at an event to mark the |
| 1:08.9 | hundredth anniversary to the day of the lecture that the great German sociologist Max Weber |
| 1:14.4 | gave in Munich on the 28th of January 1919. The name of the lecture in German is Politique |
| 1:21.8 | Elsbarouf and it's normally translated in English as politics as a vocation but it has |
| 1:27.2 | a kind of double meaning in German and in English. It's both about making money from |
| 1:32.4 | politics, politics is your job but it's also about politics as your calling, something |
| 1:37.7 | that you actually believe gives meaning to your life. |
| 1:41.8 | They gave it in 1919 at a time of complete political turmoil in Germany. It was the aftermath |
| 1:47.3 | of the First World War, the entire country was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder |
| 1:52.8 | and in Munich in Bavaria a civil war was brewing and a violent revolution and he was talking |
| 1:58.7 | to students who were literally involved in the business of political killing. It was |
| 2:04.1 | not true of the students I hope that we were talking to on Monday night but the lecture |
| 2:09.3 | is also about what politicians should do in these kinds of circumstances. It's about |
| 2:14.6 | political leadership and it has a famous distinction in it which we come on to in this conversation |
... |
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