Work · Sociology & Social Theory
Politics as a Vocation
The ethics of conviction and the ethics of responsibility; the slow boring of hard boards.
Introduction
Weber gave this lecture on 28 January 1919 in Munich to a liberal student association, in the weeks after the German revolution, and published it as a pamphlet later that year. He defines the state as the community that successfully claims the monopoly of legitimate physical force within a territory, distinguishes three grounds of legitimate rule, and traces the rise of professional politicians who live “for” or “off” politics. The final part asks what kind of person may lay a hand on the spokes of the wheel of history, and names passion, a sense of responsibility and a sense of proportion. The lecture is among the most cited texts of political science.
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