Charisma (Summer Repeat)

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2024

⏱️ 54 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea of charismatic authority developed by Max Weber (1864-1920) to explain why people welcome some as their legitimate rulers and follow them loyally, for better or worse, while following others only dutifully or grudgingly. Weber was fascinated by those such as Napoleon (above) and Washington who achieved power not by right, as with traditional monarchs, or by law as with the bureaucratic world around him in Germany, but by revolution or insurrection. Drawing on the experience of religious figures, he contended that these leaders, often outsiders, needed to be seen as exceptional, heroic and even miraculous to command loyalty, and could stay in power for as long as the people were enthralled and the miracles they had promised kept coming. After the Second World War, Weber's idea attracted new attention as a way of understanding why some reviled leaders once had mass support and, with the arrival of television, why some politicians were more engaging and influential on screen than others.

With

Linda Woodhead, The FD Maurice Professor and Head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College London David Bell, The Lapidus Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University

Tom Wright, Reader in Rhetoric at the University of Sussex

Producer: Simon Tillotson

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before this BBC podcast kicks off, I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy.
0:05.0	My name's Will Wilkin and I Commission Music Podcast for the BBC.
0:08.0	It's a really cool job, but every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs, moments and movements,
0:14.7	stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous.
0:19.1	And the BBC's position at the heart of British music means we can tell those stories like no one else.
0:24.6	We were, are and always will be right there at the center of the narrative.
0:28.6	So whether you want an insightful take on music right now or a nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and
0:34.4	infamous moments in music check out the music podcasts on BBC Sounds.
0:38.6	BBC Sounds music radio podcasts.
0:44.0	In our time is on its annual break and we'll be back on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds on the 19th of September.
0:50.0	Until then, each week we're offering an episode chosen from our archive of more than a thousand programs, which I hope you enjoy.
0:57.0	Have a good summer.
0:59.0	Hello, Max Weber 1864 to 1920, devised the idea of charismatic authority to explain why people
1:06.3	accept some as the legitimate rulers and not others. Traditional monarchs and
1:11.2	those appointed by law were one thing, but what of the individuals
1:14.8	often revolutionary who need to be seen as exceptional, heroic, even miraculous to command loyalty?
1:21.6	And for Baba, that charismatic person can disrupt the old order both for better and for worse,
1:27.0	and stay in power for as long as the people are enthralled and the miracles keep coming.
1:32.0	When we to discuss the idea about charisma are Linda Woodhead, the F.D. Morris Professor and the head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College London.
1:42.0	David Bell, the LePederus Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University,
1:46.7	and Tom Wright, reader in rhetoric at the University of Sussex.
1:50.4	Tom Wright, what do we need to know about Max Weber in the period in which he was working?
	...

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