Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T10:28:06.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Max Weber's Liberalism for a Nietzschean World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Mark Warren
Mark Warren
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Weber's commentators often accuse him of lacking a coherent political philosophy because his pluralist-elite theory of democracy seems indifferent to liberal-democratic values. I argue, however, that the core of Weber's political philosophy is a politicized neo-Kantian liberalism, one that produces an ethically significant and positive concept of politics. The problem is rather that Weber's pessimism about institutionalizing positive politics in bureaucratized societies left the ethical core of his political philosophy inexplicit. This introduced a conflict into his thought between his ethical commitments and his assessments of political possibilities. The conflict is compelling because it reflects the contemporary gap between the promise and performance of liberal democracies. At the same time, formulating Weber's problems in these terms helps identify democratic solutions that remain obscure in his assessment of conflicts between bureaucratization and democracy.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 82 , Issue 1 , March 1988 , pp. 31 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beetham, David. 1985. Max Weber and the Theory of Modern Politics. 2d ed. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Roger. 1984. The Limits of Rationality: An Essay on the Social and Moral Thought of Max Weber. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Cohen, Jean. 1972. Max Weber and the Dynamics of Rationalized Domination. Telos 14:63–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eden, Robert. 1984. Political Leadership and Nihilism. Gainesville: University of Florida Press.Google Scholar
Haberxnas, Jürgen. 1971. Discussion. In Max Weber and Sociology Today, ed. Stammer, Otto. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1979. Communication and the Evolution of Society. Trans. McCarthy, Thomas. Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1984. The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. 1. Trans. McCarthy, Thomas. Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar
Jaspers, Karl. 1962. Kant. Trans. Manheim, Ralph. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace & World.Google Scholar
Jaspers, Karl. 1964. Three Essays. Trans. Manheim, Ralph. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1964. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Trans. by Paton, Herbert J.. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1970. Kant's Political Writings. Ed. Reiss, Hans and trans. Nisbet, H. B.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kilker, Ernest. 1984. Max Weber and the Possibilities for Democracy. In Max Weber's Political Sociology, ed. Glassman, Ronald M. and Murvar, Vatro. Westport, CT: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Löwenstein, Karl. 1966. Max Weber's Political Ideas in the Perspective of Our Time. Trans. Richard, and Winston, Clara. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Löwith, Karl. 1982. Max Weber and Karl Marx. Trans. Fantel, Hans. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Macpherson, Crawford B. 1977. The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, Jane. 1981. Beyond Adversary Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Marcuse, Herbert. 1968. Negations. Trans. Shapiro, Jeremy. Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1974. Adventures of the Dialectic. Trans. Bien, Joseph. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Mommsen, Wolfgang. 1974. The Age of Bureaucracy: Perspectives on the Political Sociology of Max Weber. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Portis, Edward. 1978. Max Weber's Theory of Personality. Sociological Inquiry 48:113–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portis, Edward. 1983. The Unity of Normative and Empirical Theory. Political Studies 31:25–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portis, Edward. 1986. Max Weber and Political Commitment. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Scaff, Lawrence. 1973. Max Weber's Politics and Political Education. American Political Science Review 67:128–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schluchter, Wolfgang. 1979. Value-Neutrality and the Ethic of Responsibility. In Max Weber's Vision of History, by Roth, Guenther and Schluchter, . Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Schluchter, Wolfgang. 1981. The Rise of Western Rationalism: Max Weber's Developmental History. Trans. Roth, Guenther. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1950. Natural Right and History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles. 1985. Philosophical Papers. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. J. R. 1984. Weber and Direct Democracy. British Journal of Sociology 35:216–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1983. Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Warren, Mark. 1988. Nietzsche and Political Thought. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1946. From Max Weber. Trans, and ed. Gerth, Hans H. and Mills, Charles Wright. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1949. The Methodology of the Social Sciences. Trans, and ed. Shils, Edward and Finch, Henry. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1975. Roscher and Knies: The Logical Problems of Historical Economics. Trans. Oakes, Guy. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1978a. Economy and Society. Trans. and ed. Roth, Guenther and Wittich, Claus. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1978b. Socialism. In Selections in Translation, ed. Rundman, Walter G.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Bernard. 1985. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.