Charismatic dictatorships inverted Weber’s claim that heroic leaders save passive masses.
Evidence
Of course, events surrounding World War II proved Weber right about the polar night, but they also showed him to be spectacularly wrong about the role that charismatic leaders would have to play in historical progress. For, far from saving the masses from darkness, charismatic dictators created the gloom. A core problem with Weber’s analysis lay in a conception which counterposed the will of the leader to that of the rest of the population. According to his view, leaders need agency because masses lack it and hence heroic leadership is required in order to save the masses from themselves. — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 14
Categorization
- XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s purpose: leaders personifying shared identity vs. opposing leader-will to mass-will — a key contrast driving the social identity model of leadership. — connects to: Charismatic leaders exploit threat to create scapegoats and bring evil into being. — Jeff Greenberg and Spee Kosloff, Terror Management Theory: Implications…, 59; Charismatic leaders offer followers collective immortality in troubled times. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 460; Loyalty to a charismatic leader can override an accomplice’s own moral self-censure — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 232 (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Charisma is conferred on leaders by followers rather than held as a trait
#complicates(0.85) — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 33 - Charisma stems from Weberian authority lacking legitimate institutional basis
#expands(0.82) - Totalitarian rule must not be explained as Weberian charismatic leadership
#responds-to(0.80) - Followers are swayed most by leaders who embody the group’s valued traits.
#complicates(0.78) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1762 - Crises that undermine cultural self-worth push people toward charismatic leaders.
#complicates(0.76) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 459 - Charismatic leaders offer followers collective immortality in troubled times.
#complicates(0.75) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 460 - Loyalty to a charismatic leader can override an accomplice’s own moral self-censure
#expands(0.74) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 232 - The Leader’s power becomes structural necessity rather than personal superiority
#responds-to(0.73) - Charismatic leaders exploit threat to create scapegoats and bring evil into being.
#expands(0.72) — Jeff Greenberg and Spee Kosloff, Terror Management Theory, 59 - Revolutionary leaders who mistrust the people become oppressors themselves
#complicates(0.72) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 528 - Voluntarism degenerates into false heroism when detached from organic social blocs.
#complicates(0.70) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 820