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On Charisma and Institution Building

Selected Writings

This selection from Max Weber’s writings presents his variegated work from one central focus, the relationship between charisma on the one hand, and the process of institution building in the major fields of the social order such as politics, law, economy, and culture and religion on the other. That the concept of charisma is crucially important for understanding the processes of institution building is implicit in Weber’s own writings, and the explication of this relationship is perhaps the most important challenge which Weber’s work poses for modern sociology.

Max Weber on Charisma and Institution Building is a volume in "The Heritage of Sociology," a series edited by Morris Janowitz. Other volumes deal with the writings of George Herbert Mead, William F. Ogburn, Louis Wirth, W. I. Thomas, Robert E. Park, and the Scottish Moralists—Adam Smith, David Hume, Adam Ferguson, and others.

Table of Contents

Introduction by S. N. Eisenstadt
I. Charisma and the Structure of Social Relations
1. General Definitions of Social Action and Social Relationship
2. The Concept of Legitimate Order
3. The Sociology of Charismatic Authority
4. Meaning of Discipline
II. Charisma and Institutionalization in the Political Sphere
5. The Pure Types of Legitimate Authority
6. The Nature of Charismatic Authority and Its Routinization
7. Bureaucracy
III. Charisma and Institutionalization in the Legal System
8. Formal and Substantive Rationalization in the Law—Sacred Laws
9. Natural Law
10. Modern Law
IV. Charisma and Institutionalization in the Economic Sphere
11. Premodern Capitalism
12. Modern Capitalism
V. Charisma and Institutionalization in the Sphere of Social Stratification
13. Weber’s Basic Concepts of Stratification
14. Caste Stratification—The Case of India
15. Social Stratification and Class Structure in Modern Society
16. The Prussian Junkers
VI. The City as a Focus of Charismatic Institutionalization
17. General Characteristics of the City
18. The Concept of Citizenship
VII. Charisma and Institutionalization in the Sphere of Religion and Culture
19. The Prophet
20. The Different Roads to Salvation
21. Asceticism, Mysticism, and Salvation Religion
22. Castes, Estates, Classes, and Religion
23. Science as a Vocation
Bibliography

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