2 - Theoretical Anticipations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
We wish to understand by politics only the leadership, or the influencing of the leadership, of a political association, hence today, of a state… ‘politics’ for us means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state.…
…However, there is only the choice between leader democracy with a ‘machine’ and leaderless democracy, namely, the rule of professional politicians without a calling… ‘the rule of the clique’. For the time being, we in Germany have only the latter.
—Max Weber, ‘Politics as a Vocation’ (1919/1972)There are two basic assumptions of contemporary liberal and democratic political thinking. First, laws (not men) rule in a liberal or constitutional state. Second, many (not few) rule in a democracy. Both are simplifications that easily confuse hopes with reality. They may be correct in capturing the wishes and intentions of many liberal-democratic reformers. However, they also ignore the requirements of large-scale, complex and organised societies, and turn a blind eye to the actual paths of political modernisation and mass democratisation. Most critically, they neglect the indirect-representative character of modern democratic regimes, the key role of political leaders, and those leaders' charismatic (Weber) and innovative (Schumpeter) potential.
This does not mean that direct, participatory and grassroots democracy is impossible or unrealistic and that rational legalism and public responsibility are illusory. Participatory forms of ruling are applicable to small, simple and homogeneous social settings, and they fail in complex large-scale nationstates. Such nation-states inevitably develop indirect forms of democratic representation; they are highly organised and shaped by parties, professional politicians, elective leaders and elites.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Toward Leader Democracy , pp. 15 - 50Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2012