Max Weber and Four Mindscapes of Democratic Frustration

• In Event: Frustrations of Democracy: Historical Perspectives on Resisting Elite Domination

Abstract

In his famous “Politics as a Vocation,” Max Weber pays much attention to the question of what it takes to be a politician—both institutionally and ethically—in a modern democracy. However, his focus was not merely those career politicians, nor the kind of leadership so desperately needed. This paper places emphasis on the fact that “Politics as a Vocation” was his lecture delivered to (and thus was also about) a particular audience: the students and, by extension, any ordinary citizen who might be considered an occasional politician [Gelegenheitspolitiker].

I argue that Weber’s theory of democracy can be enriched by examining and reconceptualizing not only the “politics as a vocation” that modern democracy has produced, the problems that professional politicians are prone to fall into, and the qualities of good leadership that they can and should nonetheless possess; but also how such democratization affects ordinary citizens for whom politics is an avocation rather than a vocation and how they are bound to fall into three or four states of mind. Carefully conceptualizing those mindscapes that Weber alluded to in passing—embitterment, philistinism, acquiescence, and escapism—this paper seeks to explore the external and internal conditions under which ordinary citizens bear and bear with democratic aspirations and frustrations.

Author

• Juman Kim, Towson University