Max Weber on the Constitutive Qualities of Politics

Eric Malczewski, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

This paper’s driving questions are twofold: 1) What does Max Weber conceive the constitutive qualities of politics to be? 2) How does Weber’s view on this matter complement his social-theoretical thought in its illumination of both his metatheoretical presuppositions and his empirical claims regarding the several tendencies of the world’s civilizations? In Weber’s view, conflict is the essence of politics. Conflict is manifest when an actor faces resistance in the realization of his will. Given that objects of will are meaningfully constituted in Weber’s analytical framework, appreciating the meaningful bases of objects of will and the specific historical conditions out of which they arise is a crucial step in analyzing any political phenomenon qua political phenomenon. Weber’s thought suggests an imperative to understand the historically variable and perhaps society- or civilization-specific ends to which power is merely a means.

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 Presented in Session 244. Cultural Constitution of Politics