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Running head: THE CONCEPT OF GOVERNMENT 1

THE CONCEPT OF GOVERNMENT 5

The Concept of Government

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Institution

The Concept of Government

Max Weber had a different view of government. In his classification, he wrote that government is all about authority. He therefore, distinguishes authority in three different aspects, each of which is directly related to a particular brand of governance that is operative in a certain contemporary society. He however, notes that in order to achieve a particular form of governance in any democracy, there must be some prevailing conditions that must be favored by that particular society.

Firstly, Max Weber discussed the charismatic governance or authority. In this type of governance, there is a person who possesses particular traits that make them extraordinary (Beetham, 2013). Charismatic governance entails leaders who are not only capable but also possess the superior charismatic power to rally different people who are prone to conflicts behind their governance. The power that charismatic people derive comes from the massive trust as well as the unbreakable faith that people put in them. This kind of leadership is problematic since it is sometimes based on some promises that the charismatic individual will overhaul a system that is unjust. It is however almost impossible to find such leaders as history suggests. Good examples of charismatic leaders are Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King Jr (Beetham, 2013). All these leaders have a common mission to unite their people amid different differences and adversity.

In addition, Weber (2015) explains Max Weber’s talks of traditional authority, which normally indicates the presence of a dominant personality. Such traditional leaders depend on established traditions or order. Despite the fact that these leaders are dominant personalities in their societies, they have prevailing orders in those societies that give them the mandate to rule or govern. This traditional authority governance however, reflects daily conduct and routine. Traditional authority has some level of difficulty that it poses, to the relation that it is based on some particular dominant power (Beetham, 2013). According to Weber, all this authority exhibits some form of a dominant power. Weber explains that this authority exhibits domination in terms of a leader exploiting the prevailing circumstances in their society (Swedberg & Agevall, 2016). In this regard, the traditional authority suffers from a lack of regularity morally in the process of creating legal standards.

In addition, Max Weber writes about the third type of governance, which is legal-rational governance or authority. Swedberg & Agevall (2016) explains that this kind of governance is normally stipulated in clearly defined laws. How people obey these laws is not based on the capacity of leaders but on the competence and legitimacy of procedures and laws. The contemporary society is normally dependent on this type of rationalization, as the problem complexities require a bureaucratic emergence that embodies systemization and order. Legal authority helps in the manifestation of power of the bureaucracy over individuals (Beetham, 2013). In exercising authority, power administration, laws, and rules that include protocols and institutional duties have control over individuals. Despite that order and systemization are desirable; bureaucracy may not be in a position to fully address the problems as well as concerns of every person.

As discussed, Max Weber has three variations of how he perceived governance. The first concept is charismatic governance, in which charismatic leaders possess influential charismatic powers over their followers. Secondly, there is traditional authority that bears a leader with dominant traditional personality. Lastly, there is the concept of legal-rational governance, which operates under clearly stipulated procedures and laws.

References

Beetham, D. (2013). Max Weber and the theory of modern politics.

Swedberg, R., & Agevall, O. (2016). The Max Weber dictionary: key words and central concepts. Stanford University Press.

Weber, M. (2015). On the methodology of the social sciences. Lulu Press, Inc.