Charismatic look. Reflection in the political mirror

Fedulova A. A.

student of Lomonosov Moscow State University

Харизматичный лидер в политике

Федулова А. А.

студентка Московского государственного университета им. Ломоносова

Did you reflect on a subject of political charisma? Nowadays it is considered to be one of the most debatable and ambivalent concept of sociology. The problem is that until now there is no generally excepted definition of charisma in social theory. Moreover this theme is less developed in national Russian science, than in global one. That is why the topic has attracted my attention.

The most important concept of political charisma was stated by Max Weber.(German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist, whose ideas profoundly influenced social theory and social research). His definition of charisma is a the basis for all further social researchers. Max Weber emphasized charisma out of three types of supremacy. The first type is a traditional domination, when the leader is accepted as the authority of long-term rules and legislations. This type is presented usually by monarchy. Even though Ivan IV was called the Terrible he had his authority and sovereignty by virtue of traditions and so called divine origin. The second type is a legitimate type, when people have a belief in obligation of legal supremacy. The beginning of Russian history demonstrates this type. The Varangians were appealed for ruling. We read in Primary Chronicle: «Our earth is great and rich, but there is no order in it. Come to rule and possess our territory» So they tried to find some worthy candidate to get a sustainable country. And the third is charismatic type or personal attractiveness of a leader. These are some examples of charismatic types. The word charisma is originated from Greek language and means Mercy, Delight, and Gift from heaven. In pure meaning charismatic person is genius of the first water dowered with brilliant talents, who is accepted by society as a prophet or a pathfinder. The term was first used in social conceptions of Ernst Troeltsch and Max Weber. Agreeable to them a charismatic person is able to influence heaps of people with strong emotional power. The question is if this quality is enough to gain general recognition of electorate. Actually not. Weber is sure the charismatic leadership appears when society is in crises, that strikes its structure, when citizens don’t agree anymore to conventional institutes. Let us remember the history of 20^th century. In the beginning of 1930s Germany was embraced by the atmosphere of despondency and melancholy. The Great Depression beat economy of the country; millions of people lost their job. Fresh was the memory of humiliating defeat in the World War I, that was 15 years ago. Moreover, German people considered their government too weak to rule the country. These were chances for Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers' Party to come to power. So now we see, such fundamental changes are made by people, which are able to guess “signs of the time” and find “sensitive unstrings” of the crowd to create a new world out of it. The probability of charismatic leader`s success increases when his idea is relevant in social context, such as an idea of Hitler to revenge the world for the German humiliation. But it is fundamentally important to hold and to keep the power, it`s possible only when the leader proves his legitimacy constantly, when he has some real progress in ruling. Real progress doesn't always mean improvements for society, but some new order and reglament, as for example under Stalin. He did some arrangements such as collectivization, industrialization which characterized him as confident know-all.

In summary, charisma seems to be simple to understand, but in fact it is a complicated mechanism, that doesn`t work without any element missed. In other words charisma is a kind of fire that ignites followers` energy, commitment and performance. It resides not in a leader, not in a follower, but in the relationship between a leader who has a charismatic qualities and a follower who is open to charisma. Charisma is a product of three elements: a spark-a leader who has charismatic qualities, flammable material-followers who are open to charisma and oxygen-an environment conductive to charisma. The charismatic leader should have prosocial assertiveness, self-confidence, need for social influence, moral conviction, concern for the moral exercise of power. The most important thing of charismatic leadership is FOLLOWERS. Who are they? Those are submissive, weak and dependent. They agree with the leader and are comfortable with his vision and style. The main thing of followers is that he readily falls under leader`s influence. We all remember The Russian Revolution that was the collective term for a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of the Soviet Union. This unstable situation was one of the possibility for charismatic career of Lenin, recognized as one of the most significant and influential historical figures of the 20th century. He had got followers, who were caught by his influence.

To make a conclusion, the conception of charisma is difficult to research in a scientific fashion as the nature of this phenomenon possesses some mystical features- ambiguousness, opacity and impossibility of strict definition. But it doesn`t matter we shouldn`t try to search some social consequences of charisma.