Max Webers Begriffspolitik

Max Weber’s interpretations of key concepts such as power (Macht), rule (Herrschaft) and the state are today academic commonplaces. In this book, Kari Palonen discusses when, why and how such Weberian concepts were coined and against which views and authors he used them in polemic debate. Palonen analyses by which means Weber emphasised the contingency of public and academic language and how his concept of ‘chance’ enabled him to rethink them.

Following on from his studies of Weber’s political thinking and methodology over many years, Palonen applies an ideal, archetypical approach to Weber’s own work. In the first part of the book, he discusses the principles that Weber used as a conceptual politician. The second part includes examples — politics, power, rule, the state, democracy and parliamentarianism — which illustrate Weber’s practices of conceptual revisions. In the final chapter, Palonen analyses how Max Weber has been quoted and his ideas used in parliamentary debates.