Max Weber's Disciples: Theorizing the Charismatic Aristocracy

Abstract

While several studies have explored the interactional dynamics of charismatic power, most have neglected the role of what Weber termed the charismatic aristocracy. This article revives the classical concept to respond to contemporary calls for performative, followercentric approaches to charisma. Specifically, the charismatic aristocracy is placed at the center of an analysis of a reiterative moment in charismatization: when influential followers generate content for the emerging charismatic persona. In these germinal moments, the dialogical nature of charisma is most clear, precisely because it is then that charismatic leaders often are not themselves confident in their status and can be found responding to instructional cues-indeed following the lead-of those positioning themselves as obsequious followers. Drawing on 10 years of observations, multistage interviews, and media collections, I provide an interactionist account of the charismatic emergence of John de Ruiter, leader of a successful new religious movement. I conclude by tabling a model that conceives of the charismatic aristocracy as an important fulcrum for expectation, affectation, and recognition in charismatic interactions.

Expanding Moral Panic Theory to Include the Agency of Charismatic Entrepreneurs

“…been successfully performed (1975:358-361)." 19 Isaac Reed (2013:262) recently applied this notion of 'constative naming' to his theorization of charismatic acclamation, noting that the charismatic leader is "capable of performing into existence new social kinds, categorizations and relationships" (for a full discussion see p.261-267; see also Craciun 2016: 377-378;Joosse 2017a). 20 This insight, when paired with an awareness the performative antinomy between the charismatic hero and the folk devil, allows for an understanding of how the establishment of the leader's heroic persona can implicate new Manichean bifurcations of the moral order, producing, through a symmetrical process of moral spill-off, concomitant, opposing, performative foils to the leader in the form of new folk devils (as per Smith 2000:104).…”

Adopting a Cloak of Incompetence: Impression Management Techniques for Feigning Lesser Selves

“…The developmental flow of abilities marks temporal shifts in the pasts, presents, and futures of persons (Tavory 2018;Tavory and Eliasoph 2013). Some competencies are understood to be distinctive in their exceptionality or rarity-anomalous abilities (Joosse 2017). Other abilities are common, widely distributed, taken for granted, and unnoticed Turowetz 2017, 2019)-average abilities.…”

Charismatic authority and fractured polities: A cross‐national analysis

“…Since Max Weber's seminal work Economy andSociety (1978 [1922]), sociological research has focused on charismatic authority as either arising through social interaction (Joosse, 2012(Joosse, , 2018Katz, 1975;Reed, 2019) or on its routinization in bureaucracy (Joosse, 2017;Ritzer, 1975;Schoon & Joseph West, 2017). Little work, however, has addressed the associations between charismatic authority and various political outcomes of interest to political sociologists-especially in cross-national comparative perspective.…”