Anneke van Baalen, HIDDEN MASCULINITY, Max Weber's historical sociology of bureaucracy.
Amsterdam 1994. Chapter 4 Relations between men: from routinization of charisma to patriarchal
domination over men.
70
3. The appropriation and production of charisma
Weber sees charismatic leaders as self-appointed; they 'determine themselves and set their
own limits'. The charismatic leader demands obedience as a duty of his followers.
17
If
nobody follows him, his claim collapses; 'if they recognize him, he is their master (Herr) as
long as by 'proof' he can sustain this recognition'.
18
In Weber's theory there is no connection between the needs of the leader's followers and the
origin of the charismatic leadership; followers play no part in creating the charismatic calling
of their leader; they are, however, indispensable for the realization and continuance of his
charisma. Charisma thus breaks the rationality of history, since it is impossible to explain in a
rational way why certain needs and interests are answered by self-appointed charismatic
leaders, while other needs are not.
As Weber views the origins of charisma as irrational, the question is how he explains that
this power becomes a property of special, masculine persons. For charisma proper such an
explanation cannot be given. According to Weber 'primary charisma', as he calls it, is a
natural gift, 'which cannot be acquired by any means'. He therefore constructs a second type
of 'charisma', which can be produced artificially, by evoking an already existing germ of it by
'some ascetic or other regimen'.
19
To this 'secondary charisma' sociological explanations can
be connected; according to Weber it is the foundation of professional specialization and the
formation of groups. 'The oldest of all "vocations" is that of the professional *magician' who,
in contrast to the ordinary person, is not only 'permanently endowed with charisma', but also
knows to produce it: he 'has turned the distinctive subjective condition that notably
represents or mediates charisma, namely ecstasy, into an "enterprise".'
20
.
Here also Weber seems to represent a historical appropriation process by giving a different
meaning to a concept, in this way transforming 'a gift of nature' into a social phenomenon.
The origins of entrepreneurial magic are not explained; its existence is taken for granted and
used as a beginning for the conceptual construction for a historic development. The
magician is presented as a possessor of a means of production, an 'entrepreneur'. By
production of 'ecstasy' power and riches can be conquered and other entrepreneurs created.
In Weber's view not only the creation of priests and religious organizations is based on
'production' and 'transfer' of 'charisma' by way of its 'routinization', but also that of military
organizations. It are the charismatic military organizations which play such an important role
in specific Western developments.
17
ES p. 266, 1112, WG p. 156, 655.
18
ES p. 1113, WG p. 655.
19
ES p. 400, WG p. 245/6: 'Charisma may be either of two types. Where this appellation is fully merited,
charisma is a gift that inheres in an object or person simply by virtue of natural endowment. Such primary
charisma cannot be acquired by any means. But charisma of the other type may be produced artificially in an
object or person through some extraordinary means. Even then, it is assumed that charismatic powers can be
developed only in people or objects in which the germ already existed but would have remained dormant unless
evoked by some ascetic or other regimen.' Weber continues: 'Thus, even at the earliest stage of religious
evolution there are already present in nuce all forms of the doctrine of religious grace, from that of 'gratia infusa'
to the most rigorous tenet of salvation by good works.' This sentence is a good example of Weber's law of
paradoxical causation.
20
ES p. 401, WG p. 246. ES translates Weber's general term 'Zauberer' with 'necromancer', from 'necromancy',
art of predicting by means of communicating with the dead; magic, enchantment (Oxford Concise Dictionary).
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