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.
71
4. Routinization and 'Versachlichung' of charisma. Charismatic education Transformation of
charisma into group membership.
'Routinization of charisma'
21
is one of Weber's most interesting concepts. It involves a
transformation of charisma in which the meaning of the concept 'often is transformed beyond
recognition, and identifiable only on an analytical level'
22
; it can even be 'altogether
reversed':
'This reversal of genuine charisma into its exact opposite occurred everywhere according to the same pattern
.'
23
The process of routinization of charisma can be primed by the followers of the charismatic
leader, when they establish a selection process in order to appropriate 'powers and
economic advantages' and to regulate recruitment, which originally was based on personal
charisma
24
. Since charisma cannot be 'learned' or 'taught', only be 'awakened' and 'tested,
the norms for recruitment which are now set up involve 'training or tests of eligibility'. In this
way charismatic power, which had at first brought about a dissolution of the social bonds of
economic routine, becomes a social force.
The charisma which is routinized in this way appears to be of the 'secondary' kind: the kind
which is not a natural gift, but is produced artificially
25
. By indicating this type of charisma
with the same word as that used for the 'spontaneous' kind, Weber has already
conceptualized the possibility of its transformation. Thus he lays the foundation for a
conceptual representation of an appropriation process by means of the concept of
'routinization of charisma', in which charisma is transformed again. Charisma now becomes
'depersonalized', 'versachlicht'
26
:
'It involves a dissociation of charisma from a particular individual, making it an objective, transferrable entity
.'
Only 'Versachlichung' makes charismatic education possible:
'From a unique gift of grace charisma may be transformed into a quality that is either (a) transferable or (b)
personally acquirable or (c) attached to the incumbent of an office or to an institutional structure regardless of the
persons involved
.'
This fundamental transformation turns the meaning of 'charisma' into its opposite. Weber
nevertheless keeps using the same concept:
'We are justified in still speaking of charisma in this impersonal sense only because there always remains an
character of extra-ordinariness*, of that what is not accessible to everyone and which typically overshadows the
charismatic subjects and that it for this very reason *is serviceable for that social function, for which it is used
27
.
But of course this form of flowing of the charisma into everyday life, its transformation in a permanent *formation
(Dauergebilde), signifies the deepest transformation of its being and its functioning
.'
28
21
ES p. 246 ff., 1121 ff., WG p. 142 ff., 661 ff.
22
ES p. 1121, WG p. 661, see also ES p. 1136, WG p. 671.
23
ES p. 1139, WG p. 674.
24
Securing an adequate successor is another cause. ES p. 246 ff., 1123 ff., WG p. 142 ff., 656. ff.
25
ES p. 400, WG p. 245/6.
26
ES p. 248, WG p. 144, ES p. 1135, WG p. 671. 'Sache' means 'thing', 'sachlich' means 'business-like';
therefore it is not the same as 'depersonalized'.
27
ES p. 1135 translates: 'that charisma can fulfill its social function'.
28
ES p. 1135, WG p. 671.
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