Weber, Elias and Political Charisma

Research on the concepts of charisma and charismatic leadership tend to cite Max Weber as the authority on the subject. A fundamental reassessment of Weber’s theoretical perspective contextualising his work is missing from the literature but one of Europe’s most influential sociologists, Norbert Elias, has already provided exactly that. By broadening the field of study to include the wider societal context Elias offers an innovative and far-reaching revision in which charisma and disgrace are embedded in cultural contexts and shaped by social dynamics. Central aspects of Elias’s critique and views can only be accessed in the German literature archive, and the author utilises these unpublished resources to explore the highly original contribution to the debate that Elias makes. Creating an interdisciplinary synthesis on charisma and leadership this book develops a theoretical perspective offering many new and exciting options for empirical research, especially with regard to the underexplored link of Elias’s interdependency theory and current network theory. Demystifying the concept of charisma the book provides a plausible explanation for the many different aspects involved in the emergence and disappearance of political charisma.

Erik Jentges is an interdisciplinary researcher working on social theory and political communication. He received his doctorate in sociology in 2009 at Humboldt University Berlin, Germany. As a senior teaching and research associate in the mass communication and media studies department, he has been affiliated with the NCCR Democracy at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His research interests cover: theory of political representation; process sociology and field theory, interest groups, conceptual work on charisma and power